School in Shrewsbury smashes charitable target

At the start of the year, three main charities were chosen by students and staff at The Priory for support this year. These were Children with Cancer, Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust and Hub 365.

The Principal set everyone a challenge of beating the £12,000 raised last year and each form had the smaller challenge of raising £50 with their own individual events which included cake sales, a House Video starring staff and students, DVD nights, a FIFA competition and other inventive ways of raising money. Non Uniform days and raffles at school events were reliable sources of funding.

The two quiz nights have become a social fixture in the school calendar raising over £1,400 and providing good natured competition. New this year was a Swishing Evening which raised nearly £1,000 and will be repeated next year. The two biggest fundraisers were a trip to Area 51 with four coachloads of very excited students which raised £1,500 and the Colour Run in May, which raised £1,700.

Deborah Stephens, pa at the school said: "The year has shown that fun and fundraising go hand in hand. It is not all about raising funds though; our reverse advent calendars saw amazing generosity towards humans and dogs as the Barnabas Centre and Dogs Trust collected donations which filled the stage and meant happier Christmases for many.

"Staff and students have willingly given their time to organise these events and not only did we meet the challenging target of £12,000 we smashed it, raising just about £15,000 which is phenomenal. Cheques have already been sent to some National events we support such as Children in Need, Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day and Comic Relief amongst others but in a special assembly on Monday we were delighted to be joined by representatives of our three main charities who each received cheques for £3732.32."