SOCIETY: CHARITY

JOHN S.

Since September, myself and five other year twelves have been volunteering weekly at Redlands Primary School, as part of Reading School’s Future Stories program. We started off in the Year 2 classroom, where the theme for the half-term was ‘pirates’ – we enjoyed helping out with the literacy sessions by leading guided reading, working one-to-one with students who needed more help with their writing tasks, and supervising group work to introduce the children to new grammar points such as contractions and using the apostrophe. After half term, we moved to year 4, where we had fun helping out with numeracy and science – leading a stretch and challenge group on fractions, helping the class to make their own analogue clock faces from a paper plate, strips of card and a paper fastener, and working with the children to interpret their results from a science experiment on evaporation rates. This term, we will be splitting our time between year 2 and year 6, giving us the chance to help out with children across a wide range of ages. Our thanks go to all the staff at Redlands for accommodating us, to Mrs Hickman for providing us with the opportunity to volunteer and for coordinating the Future Stories program, and to all the children at Redlands for being such eager learners!

Boarding Charity: After a mammoth year of fundraising last year which took us up some of the UK’s highest peaks with The National Three Peaks Challenge, the Boarding Charity Committee is back, with lots in store for the coming year. The charities we have chosen to support this year are: Sure24 (a school and orphanage for children living in poverty in Nakuru, Kenya), The Climate Coalition (the country’s largest body driving for action on climate change, representing 130 organisations across the UK) and The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (a conservation charity committed to protecting wildlife from the threats it faces in the local area).

A successful cake sale last term along with our sale of refreshments at the recent Geographical Association quiz has already raised over £200 for these charities, and the next fundraising event is on the horizon. On Friday 20 March 2020, we will be hosting a quiz night and fish and chip supper in the refectory – there will be questions for all the family, so students, siblings, parents, extended family, staff and friends are all very welcome at what is set to be a very enjoyable evening. Tickets can be reserved by emailing Karen Andrews (kandrews@readingschool.co.uk). In the meantime, keep an eye on this column in future editions of the newspaper, where you’ll be kept updated on the Boarding Charity Committee’s work throughout the year