Charitable Causes

Brighstone CE Aided Primary School (registered charity no. 307389) sponsors several local causes as well as international ventures each year. Being a small village school, we are proud of our strong links with the local village and surrounding areas. These enable children to see themselves as part of the local and wider community, and encourages them to reach out and support others. We also take part in charity events, raising awareness of and money for a range of different charities.

Each November, we support Children In Need by encouraging the children to join in with a themed costume day, donating money as they do so. We also do the same for Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day and Show Racism the Red Card, and, each year, we take part in Walk the Wight.

 

Every year we also take part in World Book Day, in which we raise money for Book Aid International, as well as our local Rotary Shoe Box Appeal whereby shoe-boxes are filled with goodies for disadvantaged children in Albania, Montenegro, Moldova and Romania. Classes also raise money for charities as part of their topics; for example, raising money for animal charities linked to their class names.

Following a visit from a headteacher from Uganda, and a visit by her Pearl of Africa school choir in November 2023, we are going to be raising money for this very worthy charity. We are looking forward to another visit from the choir in November 2024!

 

Brighstone Primary is also a member of the Unity Lottery – join up to win a cash prize and a percentage of your payment goes directly to the school as your chosen charity.

By doing your shopping online through Easy Fundraising, you are automatically giving a proportion of your spend to the school. It’s so ‘easy’ to do! Just Join up and select us as your chosen charity, then click on the thinks on their site to visit the ‘web shop’ of our choice and make your purchases online as normal. The rest is taken care of.

Ukraine

As a school community, we want to do what we can to help those in need due to the current crisis in Ukraine.

Mufti Day

On Friday 11th March children and staff were invited to wear something blue and/or yellow to school to show our support for Ukraine.

We collected monetary donations for a small Romanian charity called ’Cry in the Dark’ (CITD). This is a UK based, but Romanian-active charity that Miss Sztypuljak’s father helped to establish some 24 years ago. At that time it was to build an orphanage and then a hospice. The hospice has been replaced by something bigger now, but the original hospice building remains and is now opened as a shelter for Ukrainian refugee families. Our reasons for supporting this charity are because Miss Sztypuljak’s Grandad was Ukrainian and her family still have relations living in the Ukraine. Although her father is no longer a part of this charity, he is still in touch with those that run it. As they are a small charity they are seeking donations to help support and home some Ukrainian refugees families.

More info – https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/helpforUkraine

https://m.facebook.com/cryinthedark/

We are delighted to announce that we raised an astonishing £1061!

 

Other ways you can help:

The DEC appeal – the UK government have pledged to match donations up to 20 million pound https://www.dec.org.uk/
Join the Facebook Group Isle of Wight community help for Ukraine for local updates on how you can help https://www.facebook.com/groups/548406369544562
Drop off smaller items to the Astra recycling bank outside the front of the school – please label any items for Ukraine. The director of Astra Recycling is Ukrainian and so is doing all he can to make sure items are going to those in need https://www.astrarecycling.co.uk/meet_the_team.html
You will find this information and more in this week’s newsletter and on our Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/BrighstoneCEPrimarySchool

Advice on how to talk to children about the conflict:

As hostilities in Ukraine escalate, children may see and hear things about the crisis in the news, leading to feelings of uncertainty, anxiety and fear, which parents and caregivers need to address, Save the Children’s psychologists warn.

https://www.savethechildren.org/us/charity-stories/how-to-explain-conflict-ukraine-to-children

Thank you.

 

Remembrance Day 

Each year, the school commemorates Remembrance Day by gathering by the war memorial in front of the church. Each class creates special poppy displays.

 

 

Cards for the community

During lockdown, we spread joy and happiness throughout the village when every child in the school made a card for members of the local community so they didn’t feel so lonely. We teamed up with Brighstone’s Community Hub Co-ordinator to identify people living alone in the village who would benefit from messages from the children. This gesture was very much appreciated and it was heart-warming to receive many cards and letters in return, explaining how we had touched and brightened many lives. This activity reflected our values of love and respect, as well as our Collective Worship values of generosity and compassion.

 

Reverse advent calendar

Children at Brighstone CE Aided Primary School have donated hundreds of items of fruit and vegetables for the animals at the Isle of Wight Zoo as part of a reverse advent calendar initiative.

Following Reception’s and Key Stage One’s school trip to the zoo at the beginning of November, the whole school were inspired to get involved in the Isle of Wight Zoo’s ‘Veg Pledge’ scheme which helps the zoo to provide quality fresh food to their animals at minimal or no cost. In the three weeks leading up to Christmas the children donated hundreds of items of fruit and vegetables to provide meals for creatures including capuchin monkeys, meercats, porcupines, racoons, lemurs and the zoo’s farm animals. We know how difficult it has been for the zoo this year due to the impact of the pandemic so felt inspired to support their veg pledge, which reflects this term’s Collective Worship values of generosity and compassion.

Marc Fox, Animal Manager at the Isle of Wight Zoo said: “We are so grateful for the support of the local community which is helping us through these unusual times. The generous delivery of fresh fruit and vegetables from the children at Brighstone this December has helped us enormously, and the animals are very thankful for their tasty meals.”

 

Hearts for Homes

With usual carol singing and care home visits cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions, we aimed to bring some Christmas cheer to elderly residents in their local community by creating and delivering cards, pictures and letters to residents at Brighstone Grange care home. Pupils from the school would normally visit the home to sing carols each Christmas, but this year residents were able to watch our nativity performance online instead.
Linnet Hutchinson, Vital Coordinator at Brighstone Grange care home, said: “It was lovely to receive the drawings and messages from the children this Christmas; it has given our residents a real boost. They have also thoroughly enjoyed watching the school’s nativity online, with the added bonus that it can be watched again and again! Thank you Brighstone School!”

 

Red Nose Day 2021

The children are out to save the world! We had a fantastic day finding our inner superheroes as part of the Red Nose Day theme of ‘superpowers’. In return for a donation, children came to school dressed as a superhero, either a well-known character or a made up one.

Throughout the day, the children took part in a range of activities around superpowers, such as the values of collaboration, courage, resilience and kindness, or practical superpowers such as epic dance moves, hilarious hopping or brilliant balancing! We also took part in a whole school ‘Wake Up Shake Up’ dance-a-thon.

In Ainslie class, they held a ‘tell a joke’ challenge, listened to more superhero stories and pretended to be superheroes inside and outside. In Lambert class, they created superhero masks in Art, wrote character descriptions of their superheroes, carried out some superhero balancing challenges around an obstacle course, made some balloon flying superheroes in Science, and explored a range of super skills, including super stamina, super hearing, and super minds. In Robertson class, they held a talent show linked to Kassy’s speech in the book that they are currently reading, explored the reasons behind Red Nose Day and why we need it, took part in trust and team building exercises, and carried out a Comic Relief quiz testing their super minds! As part of their Romans topic, they also made shields and took part in a battle between the Romans and the Iceni tribe. In Macarthur class, they drew superheroes and took part in superhero Maths challenges. In Clover class, they created their own superheroes and their alter egos. They used their pop-art skills to represent them and when describing both characters’ qualities, showed how they can create contrasts within their writing.

We raised over £170!