Helping Others

Supporting the families of Ukraine

Together with our children and families, as a school community we worked together to create a huge donation for the children and families of Ukraine, as they battle challenging times. The response was overwhelming and showcased the care, love and respect for our global neighbours.

 

Raising funds for the Children's Heart Unit Fund 

Everyone at Sleights wore red to help raise funds for the Children's Heart Unit Fund (CHUF) at Freeman's Hospital, Newcastle. Our school family has seen first hand the excellent work of the charity. The children enjoyed learning about how the charity supports families and some of the ways that their money would help too.  

Throughout the day, the children enjoyed making lots of heart related art, as well as creating their own jokes which could be told in the hospital to cheer families up - we even found out that the charity has a clown doctor to help do this! The children also wrote prayers and created their own messages of support.The final total was a massive £269. This staggering amount is the largest amount our school has raised for a charity in many years and something everyone should be immensely proud of! The Children’s Heart Unit Fund raises vital funds to support children and their families requiring lifechanging operations and care. Your money will make a real difference.

Helping pandas

After learning that the panda is at risk of extinction when reading 'The Firework Maker's Daughter', the Discoverers made it their mission to do something about this! So, they set about raising funds through a movie and pizza night to sponsor a Panda with the WWF. Each month, they make a donation to the charity and have their own panda bear in the classroom (known as Bobby) as an ongoing reminder of their commitment. 

Read our Whitby Gazette article here: We adopted a panda by eating pizza!

 

 

Hedgehog Heroes The Learners are leading the way to help everyone at Sleights become a hedgehog hero! As part of our work to help us achieve "Hog Friendly Status", the Learners are working hard to improve our school site and our knowledge about what we can do to help the hedgehogs. This great work has included some practical work in the forest - hunting for hog life and creating posters to promote key messages. These were spotted all around the town!

 

Together, we can change the world

Our school curriculum was planned to support children change the world. As part of the curriculum, each class explored rights of the child, before considering how they believed the world could be changed. To help their change, each class was gifted £10 and a challenge to make the money grow.

Over a number of weeks, each class identified a cause, with a clear rationale, before planning and hosting their own events. These events included a bring and buy clothes sale, raising £400 for the World Wildlife Foundation and a pizza and movie night for Dementia UK. 

Linking with the older community of Sleights

Our youngest children, the Pioneers, have enjoyed making links with our elderly neighbours. Organised with Beyond Housing, children enjoy visiting the community centre in the village and playing games and completing activities with our neighbours.  We have also enjoyed being able to welcome our Pioneer Pals into our school.

Children have visited Esk Hall care home, in Sleights. The children have been helping the residents there to engage in different activities. The children have read poems to them, and shared stories, as well as simply talking to them about their lives and learning more about their experiences. They played games and encouraged the elderly to be pushed out of their comfort zone, playing catch on the lawn and playing Connect 4.

The children were always welcomed with juice and biscuits and have thoroughly enjoyed building these relationships with people whom then usually wouldn’t have chance to spend time with. As a result of this time together, the children are learning to consider how their actions affect the lives of others and how simply giving their time can have a positive impact on the world.

 

Raising money for charity

As part of the Archbishop of York Young Leaders award, children spent time researching charities and thinking about the different ways in which they can offer their support. The children decided to organise their very own fundraiser and between themselves managed to arrange a school sleepover. They shared a movie, with pizza and popcorn, and then camped out in the school hall, all in order to raise money for Crohn’s and Colitis UK. The children raised a whopping £850.00!

Judith Kirk, the Assistant Director for North Yorkshire County Council came to visit Sleights to hear about our fundraising efforts too.