Woking's Hoe Valley School giving back to community for Christmas
The school in Woking want to make a difference to the lives of others this Christmas by giving back to their local community
Students, parents and staff at Hoe Valley School in Woking have pulled out all of the stops to make a difference to the lives of others this Christmas by focussing on giving back to their local community.
Community is a central part of the school’s ethos and following a recent poll of students and staff, they have set out to fundraise for 3 charities throughout the academic year.
They picked 1 local charity, 1 national charity and 1 global charity – Shooting Star Children’s Hospices (local), Cancer Research UK (national) and UNICEF (global).
Several fundraising events have already taken part this term, but the focus for Christmas has been about making a difference locally.
The school’s youngest students, in Year 7 and 8, designed and created Care Hampers, many complete with features like functioning Christmas lights and packed full of thoughtful items donated such as magazines, puzzle books, warm socks, toiletries and delicious treats.
Two students from the winning tutor group visited three local care homes to deliver the spectacular hampers and the residents of Greys Residential Care Home, Snowdon Care Home and Kingsleigh Care home were all happy to receive the goodies that they will be sharing with residents over the festive period.
One resident told the students that: "it is lovely to know that people care. This has made my Christmas!"
Alongside the care hampers, donations of new children’s toys and books have also been made by students and their families across the year groups and these were delivered by representatives of the Student Leadership Team to the Shooting Star Children’s Hospice Donation Point in Woking.
They will also shortly be receiving a cheque for hundreds of pounds that was raised through the school-wide Christmas Jumper Day and the selling of festive candy cane gifts.
Mrs Jane Davies, Head teacher of Hoe Valley School said:
"After the year or so that everyone has had, I am really proud that our students are so focused on making a difference both within our local community here in Woking, but also nationally and globally throughout the rest of the school year.
"We have had a wonderful response to our appeals for donations from our parent body, but the students have really tried to make this Christmas bigger and better donation-wise than last year, and they have truly achieved that!"