Crisis Appeal

I had a thought back in the summer, that I wanted to do something a little different this year. After some school based coaching since June, I've realised that I'm excited by being creative, and in essence, not following the herd and doing things that are a bit outside the box. It aligns with my natural non-conformist attitude I suppose ;-) 

Anyways, a few months ago Waitrose started selling these beautiful grey crates designed for making gift baskets etc. I pitched the idea of making up one of these and maybe taking it to our local hospital or something, in lieu of getting Christmas presents from the children. It was a passing thought. I knew I wanted to do something but I wasn't sure exactly what that would be. 

A few weeks ago, S and I decided our focus would be the Crisis appeal that supports the homeless. S volunteers her time each Christmas to go up to one of their rough sleepers centres in Paddington, and spends a couple of days partaking in various activities from serving food, clearing up, first aiding and also playing games like chess with the guests. We talked a little bit and decided that we would ask parents to donate items that would be useful for this, as opposed to buying any gifts for us this year.

Now my actions were not entirely selfless- I really dislike being showered with gifts anyway, but I just can't see the point in parents wasting their money on bottles of wine and chocolates, as well as the endless keyring and toiletry gift boxes. I simply don't need those things, and I don't want to have to regift it to friends and family etc. But most of all, I wanted the three adults and our motley crue of thirty to really use our energy to make a difference in the small way that we could.

We sat the children down one morning and showed them the clip of Ralph McTell's song, Steets of London, sung by real people suffering hardship. We talked at length about what it would be like for them, and explained that we are so lucky to have a roof over our head, food to eat etc. They were really taking it all in, and I explained that we didn't want them to buy anything for us, but to buy things for the homeless. They were really excited, and together in front of the Smartboard, we sat and composed the letter together.

The next day I had a note from a parent saying how delighted she was to receive our letter, and how she was looking forward to getting a box together with her son. The children came in in dribs and drabs each day, bearing large bags filled with toothbrushes, toothpaste, wipes, tissues, deodorant, hats, gloves, socks etc. All of the suggested items on our list. We made a huge fuss of them when they brought them in, and each morning we sat and went through each bag and talked about how they would be used. We told them that this week we would pack them into individual bags ready to give to people, and they were really excited.

This morning, whilst I was doing the register, a parent popped into the classroom and whispered to S, that she and a few other parents would like to pop in. They asked for several children to go and help them, and then about 10 parents came in with lots of huge wrapped boxes filled with a load more things for our appeal! I find the presentation-type thing a bit embarrassing, as the children all get over excited and it looks like we can't control them! But S was brilliant, and explained in more detail to the parents how these things will be used. They still, after all of their donations, gave us each a card with £50 M&S vouchers! 

We set all of the things out on the table, and when the children came back from assembly, they had the chance to make up the packs themselves. I filmed them (with permission) as I think this is going to be the first step on our journey, and I want to use the video for our class assembly in a few months time. The delight on their faces was so lovely to see. We had talked a little bit yesterday about the Band Aid song all those years ago, and how Bob Geldof had wanted to do something to help famine struck Ethiopia. I showed them a little clip from the news, which is a bit gritty, but I believe that any subject, no matter how complicated, can be broken down for small people to understand. They really took it all in, and it seemed fitting to have the Do They Know It's Christmas? song playing non-stop in the background :-) 

We had such a productive morning, the boss and lots of other teachers popped down to see it in action, and the plan is to do something bigger across the school next year. I've heard it mentioned in other circles this week, so hopefully just like ripples on a pond, this is just the first step. I'm not sure what might be next for us to give back, but somebody suggested a visit to the elderly in the care home over the road after Christmas. We shall see.

On Thursday, the day we broke up, S bought her car and the children carried all the stuff outside and helped to load it all in. She will drive up there on the 27th. 

In lieu of any gifts for them, S donated £30 (one for each child in our class) to the Crisis appeal, and I did the same amount to Emmy's fund for the Royal Marsden. 

We are just so proud of them all, and genuinely overwhelmed with the response. Projects like this make me excited, because learning is about so much more than academic learning- it's about finding out what matters and never forgetting to develop kindness, empathy and compassion in every child. 

We've only just started :-)