School news round up: including Leverstock Green School’s enterprise day

Daffodil and coffee morning springtime fundraiser

Nursery children at Grove Road Primary School learnt the importance of giving when they raised money for Marie Curie Cancer Care with their own fundraising coffee morning.

Home baked cakes with a yellow theme were available for parents and teachers to buy, and the children helped serve cakes as well as take the money using their own cash tills.

All the tables were decorated with bright yellow spring daffodils, generously provided by Magnolia florists of Tring.

As part of their fundraising activity the children planted daffodil bulbs in the autumn and nurtured them to become beautiful ‘Pots of Joy’ which were then given to parents for a donation.

All the wrapping for the flower pots was provided by Magnolia.

Pots of Joy and the coffee morning raised £317.31 for Marie Curie.

Nursery leader Vicky Brace said: “This has been a wonderful opportunity for the children to learn about the work of charities.

They have loved taking care of their plants and watching them grow, and they understand how money raised at their coffee morning will help make a difference to people’s lives.

This has been a project which has truly enriched the children’s learning.”

Work shadowing day

A pilot scheme for pupils to take part in a work shadowing day proved very successful for John F Kennedy Catholic School.

The students were invited to shadow one of their parents for the day, within the parents work environment. The students found it enlightening and useful.

One student said: “I did not realise how difficult it is to arrange meetings with potential and existing clients and how complex the administration is within an office.

The student’s parent said: “I feel that my son has had an insight into the workings of an office environment and how youshould behave in a professional manner.

He has also learnt that you should respect your fellow colleagues and that everyone works as part of a team in order to achieve a common goal.”

Another parent said: “Work shadowing has reminded me of how important it is to share another aspect of my life with my son.”

A group of students remained at school as part of the work shadowing day where there was a set programme organised for them.

One student, who wishes to be an engineer, said he found the chance to research future careers useful.

Heroes and Villains

Longdean School’s dance group UrbanNRG took part in this year’s Dacorum dance competition with their piece Immortals based on the theme Heroes and Villains.

Longdean was placed second, with over 30 students involved from Years 7 to 13, the biggest group ever to be entered by the school.

The students performed exceptionally well and demonstrated fantastic performance skills and professionalism throughout the evening.

Enterprise week

Leverstock Green School held an enterprise week where each class designed, advertised, made and sold different products.

These ranged from soap bunny buddies to cake pops.

Each class started with only £30 to start up their class enterprise business.

Each class worked hard during the week but also prior to the week starting.

The school received a £250 donation from Amazon towards the week, as well as toys from Tesco, John Lewis, Toys UK and Lego. Cake ingredients were also donated from SPAR and Tesco.

Each class received their donations after writing letters explaining what they were doing. The whole school raised over £800.

Visit from MP

Mike Penning MP visited John F Kennedy Catholic School and spoke to Years 12 and 13. Students enjoyed questioning the MP, especially as some of them will be eligible to vote for the first time, in the forthcoming general election in May.

Students have also received visits from the Liberal Democrat Party Rabi Martins and UKIP candidate Dr Howard Koch.

During April Sofiya Ahmed from the Green Party and Dr Tony Breslin from the Labour Party will visit.

Monte Carlo or bust to raise money for special pool for special children

Three men are driving more than 950 miles in a 2002 Nissan Almeria to raise money to help buy a new hydrotherapy swimming pool for the children of The Woodfield School.

Paul Carrington, his father Keith Carrington and Richard Percy, who are all from Hemel Hemsptead, have entered the Monte Carlo or Bust Banger Rally and decided to make it extra special by raising money for a worthy cause at the same time.

Mr Carrington Junior said: “We were signed up to do the rally and then we saw that the school was fundraising for a new pool, so we went to visit them and decided it was a good thing to raise money for.”

The men are seeking sponsorship of any kind to raise money for their venture, and donations can be sent via their Facebook page The Saxon Wasps or the school’s Just Giving page which is at www.justgiving.com/w-a-s-p

Mr Carrington Junior is a lorry driver and will be the lead driver on the journey, and Mr Percy, who works in breakdown recovery, will be the other driver.

Mr Carrington Senior is to be the navigator.

The men will leave at 10am on July 16 from The Woodfield School and will then travel in the car, via ferry or the Channel Tunnel, this is yet to be decided, to arrive in France on the same day where they will register to start the race.

The following day, July 17, the event will start in the early morning. Mr Carrignton Junior said it is not really a race, it is a question of completing the route, which is 950 miles and takes in a trip over the Alps via The Grand Saint Bernard Pass and on to Turin in Italy before going forward to Monte Carlo.

They will sleep in hotels along the way and are expected to finish on July 20.

Mr Carrington Junior said: “It is our first rally and we are very excited and can’t wait for it to start. It should be very good fun.”