At The Priory School we believe that encouraging students to engage in charity and community work is an invaluable part of the wider curriculum. Charity work is a way for students to demonstrate our school values of respect and responsibility.
Charity Fundraising
Each year there is a designated Charity Week during which students are encouraged to hold fundraising events in school and also to take part in lunchtime activities organised by the charity and community prefects, all with the aim of raising money and awareness.
In the academic year 2023-24 we had our best fundraising year yet, raising a total of £6,155. We have enjoyed our fundraising for charities such as Save the Children, Children in Need, MacMillan, Genetic Disorder Charity (Jeans for Genes), Breast Cancer Support and Comic Relief. Our biggest fundraiser was our Empowering Ethan Week, where we set a challenge to fundraise as much money as we could for an ex-student who was seriously injured. The money went to the charity Aspire and is now supporting him with equipment to support his future.
We have also been doing various awareness campaigns throughout the year coordinated by the SEN and Wellbeing department. We have been developing our understanding around Dyslexia Awareness Week, ADHD Awareness Month, Mental Health weeks (children, male and general mental health), Down Syndrome Awareness Day and Autism Awareness Day.
Further to this, we have been increasing the support for our LGBTQ+ students and raising the profile of the diverse community around school. This has included raising money for Stonewall and increasing the students’ knowledge of the important work they do. This is all coordinated and arranged during our Everyone’s Allies club.
This year (2024-25) our focus will be on local charities and supporting them in gaining larger amounts of money. We aim to support Hitchin Food Bank, Feed Up Warm Up, and The Garden House Hospice. We hope that you will support us in our efforts to fundraise as much as possible.
Community Work
At The Priory School we pride ourselves on being a community school. We encourage students to be active citizens through volunteering, charity work and working with the local community. This has been shown in many forms, from litter picking locally to singing in a local care home. With the current cost of living crisis, we focused on Hitchin Food Bank as a key focus of our work this year, ensuring that our Christmas offerings were the best they could be. We were able to take two car loads full of goodies down to Hitchin Food Bank for our local Hitchin and Letchworth families to enjoy.