Courageous Advocacy

This year, St. Augustine’s has embarked upon a couple of different projects to develop our ability to be courageous advocates for causes we believe in – helping and connecting with our local, national and worldwide communities to improve the world we live in.

Our first project has centered around the idea of poverty – what is it, how does it happen, is it the same in the UK and abroad, how can we support those who are in it? These were all questions that the children wanted to explore this year. We sought the help and support our friend Jordan Lambert who works with the Renew Church in Uttoxeter. He also works with a charity called One By One, who work in Kenya to help support vulnerable families and help children receive an education. We asked Jordan to help us understand what poverty is first. Jordan visited our school to speak to the KS2 children after Christmas. He helped us understand poverty by playing a game of life with the children – where they created a character who had choices to make, not knowing what consequences would be around the corner. The children realised that while we can do our best to make the best choices, sometimes in life things happen (like illness) that can put us in vulnerable positions, like not being able to pay bills. Poverty is when we are without something we need – such as medicine, clothes, food and shelter.

After this initial session, Jordan visited us again to explore poverty in the UK compared to Kenya. We could see that while people’s lives are different, their problems are the same – poverty is not a choice and people who are experiencing it need support.

The children had heard about food banks in the UK and knew that it was something they wanted to support as anyone may need a food bank one day. They also wanted to help sponsor a child in Kenya to go to school, as education is a powerful tool against poverty. So, we decided to go for it! Lots of projects were completed over the Spring term to raise the money we needed for our sponsorship – cake sales, non-uniform days, community walks etc!

After we successfully raised the money we needed to support our friends in Kenya, we focussed on finding a link to the food bank close to us. Jordan put us in contact with Fiona who helps to run the food bank alongside the Renew Church in Uttoxeter. After learning all about what food banks are, how they work and what they need, we asked Fiona to help us come up with a sustainable way to support the food bank next academic year. We have come up with an thermometer idea, where the food bank would tell us the ‘hot item’ of the month, to give our school community a focus for the month. This is something we are looking to implement in the autumn term and we are excited about it!

Toilet Twinning

Hedgehog Conservation

The other area of our courageous advocacy project has evolved from our work on hedgehog conservation. As part of our STEAM work, we were visited in school by a wildlife charity to worked with hoglets. The children were shocked by some of the statistics they heard (There has been a decline of 98% in hedgehog numbers since the 1950s) and knew they wanted to ask the adults helping to run the country what was being done about it. The children understood that humans need to help this species by creating wildlife friendly roads and residential areas. The children decided to contact their local MP, in the hope that they could answer some of their questions and help raise awareness on a national level. By sending her the letters, I was hoping to show the children that even their small actions can make a difference in the world. Our school wishes to nurture courageous advocates, wanting to make better the world in which they live. So we sent them off and we were in for a fantastic response! We received a letter from Kate Kniveton MP who was equally as shocked as us at the decline in hedgehog numbers – we had taught her something new! Please see the copy of the letter we received from her. We were also visited by her a few weeks later to discuss in person the impact of our hedgehog letters! She was very impressed with our knowledge on conservation and our passion for the welfare of the environment. She explained to us what things had happened as a result of our letters and what more we can do to help. Please take a look at the letter Kate sent us after this visit – we are very grateful to her and very proud of ourselves for being such ambassadors and courageous advocates! It has been such a worthwhile experience and something we wish to continue to support and help in the future.

Race for Life

We are so proud of everyone today, All of our pupils completed the Race for Life this morning! We are still waiting on a few donations but we are astounded at the amount we have raised so far! We will update you with final total when we have received all of the donations! Well done everyone! Our donation page can be found here and all proceeds go to Cancer Research UK.

A massive thank you to everyone who donated, came to cheer us on or baked such wonderful cakes for our cake sale!

Feed the Hungry- Nepal Well Project

Well we have teamed up with St Peter’s Alton, All Saints at Denstone and The Dove to raise money to have a well drilled in Nepal. It costs £600 to drill a well and we have all raised £150 each. This is being done alongside Feed the Hungry who will be actually doing the work over in Nepal. There will be a plaque with our school’s names on when the well is up and running.

Please click on the image below to find out more information regarding the project.

Supporting Charities During Lockdown

Even throughout lockdown our fabulous children have been raising money for their chosen charities! We are so proud of them! What amazing efforts!

Daisy has been completing her ‘couch to 5K’ run. Daisy has raised an amazing amount of over £200 for the training of a guide dog puppy and a hearing puppy! What a great effort. Well done Daisy!

Elsie has been running around her garden to raise money for the NHS during lockdown. Well done Elsie!

Supporting Charities

Cake Sale for Yess Charity

Our cake sale yesterday combined with our Great British Roast menu last term raised a total of £65.00 for Yess charity.

To find out more about this amazing local charity please click here.

This is a fabulous charity who have helped many people at St Augustine’s immediate family and those close to us. Keep a lookout for more fund raising throughout the year for this special charity.

Coffee Morning for Pancreatic Cancer UK

Mrs Walker has completed her incredible 50 mile swim during November and even managed to beat her target and swim 55.8 miles! That’s an amazing 4500 lengths!! We are incredibly proud of her and this amazing achievement! We will keep you posted on the final total amount of money raised but we helped by raising an incredible £350.00 between the three schools by hosting our coffee morning! A big thank you also to our incredibly supportive PTA and parents who brought so many fabulous cakes to share!

Kindness Parcels

The whole school held a non- uniform day on Wednesday, every child brought £1 in and wore bright coloured clothes for the day! The money raised will buy items for our kindness parcels. These items such as socks, small toys, and toiletries will be collected and posted to people in need over the christmas period. We have raised nearly £50 to buy the items with and we will keep you posted as we do! Please see this link for an inspiring video and more information about the charity that we are supporting.