Just before we broke up for the Easter holidays, the school held a fundraising "fun run" to raise money for Brightwell Supporting Refugees, a grassroots charity run by a group of villagers in nearby Brightwell. The group supports displaced persons in Jordan, specifically children in two schools: the Hope School and the Asraq School. Their fundraising helps children in these school projects, through the provision of books and stationery, shoes, and humanitarian aid, including food and medical care.

We set out to hold a fundraising event, to bring the school together, raise money for Brightwell Supporting Refugees and to provide some contextual information as to why people become refugees and so on, as part of our initiative in building student-led PSE within the whole school. All of this was completed through a student-written PSE lesson for the younger years, and a presentation for the Sixth Form delivered by some of the School Officers a week before our fun run. At the event, we brought together students from every year in the school and teachers from every department, and invited them to “run” a course around the school field. It was wonderful to see the whole school getting behind a cause which we believe is so important, especially in the current international climate, where intolerance and ignorance hold the headlines captive. Alongside our run, which was so selflessly supported by the PE department, we invited the people behind Brightwell Supporting Refugees to hold a cake sale, which collected more than £100.

Altogether, over £1000 was donated by the members of the school through the fun run and cake sale. Congratulations to Matilda House too, who won the house competition we incorporated into the fundraiser, with an astounding 712 laps of the course!

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank the PE department, all the teachers at Wallingford, and of course the students and their parents, in helping us to raise such an amazing amount for a brilliant cause.

Thank you,

- The School Officers: Jess, Phoebe, Victoria, Jess, Jack, Tom & Will