Penny stretton
Director of Marketing and Communications, The Prince William Award
Our pioneering character and resilience education programme is a year-long course for 6- to 14-year-olds to help them boost their confidence, emotional resilience and self-belief. We’re reaching 11,000 pupils this year, but need to reach more. Tell headteachers and school decision makers about our award, so that they can find out further information – helping charities like ours to raise their profile is crucial.
Teachers and headteachers can then get in touch and advise us as to how we can most effectively communicate with you. We don’t want to clog up your inbox, but would love the chance to tell you more about our work. If you’re a teacher or headteacher who’d like to help us reach schools more effectively, please get in touch.
Finally, we would love you to fundraise for us. We have a Young Runners initiative and can supply a pack for you, or you could hold a ‘Best Self Breakfast’ event selling food and drink. Any fundraiser you hold could go towards the cost of rolling out The Prince William Award in your school.
We hear from several charitable causes keen to engage schools in supporting their work
@ThePWAward
princewilliamaward.co.uk
Lesley appleton
Fundraising co-ordinator, Hand on Heart
Hand on Heart is a dedicated children’s charity with a mission to keep children safe, and prevent the deaths of the 12 young people who each week lose their lives due to sudden cardiac arrest.
Our vision is for all educational establishments and community facilities hosting children’s activities to have defibrillators in place; for their staff to be confident in managing health emergencies, and for further child deaths from sudden cardiac arrest to be prevented.
Charity days don’t just raise money for good causes – they can also provide children with valuable learning opportunities. How does the heart work? Want happens when the heart gets poorly? How can we help to protect the heart whilst in school?
The money schools raise could go towards helping and protecting the lives of young people you may well know – your own children, or those of siblings, other relatives and close friends in your local community.
Hand on Heart can provide fundraising packs and worksheets via our website. Raising funds and supporting us can be fun, so get involved and help save the lives of others at risk from cardiac arrest.
Jonathan Roberts
Manager, community and events fundraising UK, Smile Train
From the tried and tested non-uniform day fundraiser, to running an art competition, there are countless ways in which your school can get involved and support the work of Smile Train.
We recently heard of how one primary school supported us by holding an assembly dedicated to joke-telling, with pupils all bringing in their favourite joke and a charitable donation. I personally think that’s a great idea – and one that aligns perfectly with our goal at Smile Train of giving every child the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life and the chance to smile, with Smile Train funded cleft treatment costing as little as £150.
No matter what you do to support Smile Train, make sure to contact us so that you can receive a selection of helpful fundraising materials, such as balloons, banners and information leaflets. These are a great way of raising awareness and can help make your event a great success. Most of all, it’s important to have fun whilst fundraising, and to let your pupils know that their support is helping to change the world – one smile at a time…
@smiletrainuk
smiletrain.org.uk
Inspiring sounds
Services For Education tells us about its mission to create opportunities for children and young people across Birmingham.
Services For Education is a Birmingham-based music and learning charity. Music is of key significance, particularly for those with additional needs. It can be the only way in which some children with severe and profound learning difficulties are able to communicate – yet nationally, the music offer for special schools is not equitable with their mainstream counterparts.
To begin addressing this gap, in 2018 Services For Education launched ‘Inspiring Sounds’; a pilot project seeking to broaden access to music for those with additional needs.
‘Inspiring Sounds,’ is delivered by a team of ‘Sounds of Intent’ practitioners (see soundsofintent.org). The team is led by Sophie Gray, who has worked in music education for the past 16 years, primarily supporting learners with complex needs and disabilities. Also involved in the project is Professor Adam Ockelford of Roehampton University, the creator of Sounds of Intent, who acts as a critical friend and will be developing music resource cards tailored to individual schools.
We are currently working with over a hundred students across six special schools through the Inspiring Sounds initiative. Pupils receive two weekly hours of bespoke group music lessons led by our practitioners, while school staff receive training in how to use music in their practice and how to evaluate their pupils’ progress.
The students benefit by being able to develop a variety of skills, including enhanced movement, awareness and creativity, as well as life skills such as listening and turn-taking. They also have a lot of fun in the process!
“During sessions, children who were normally reserved, and who struggle to pay attention during work time, got involved, playing instruments, imitating noises and copying actions in songs. It was amazing to see!” – Class teacher
School staff have also benefited from the professional development opportunities that the work brings.
“[Sounds of Intent and Inspiring Sounds] helped staff to understand the importance and significance of incorporating music into the curriculum, language and development, and how it truly benefits social and emotional communication. It has helped to provide staff with more confidence in teaching what’s a specialist subject, and make the teaching of music less daunting.” – Music co-ordinator
We have provided school staff with the resources, skills and confidence to continue delivering music provision for hopefully many hundreds more pupils in the future.
To find out more about the project, visit servicesforeducation.co.uk inspiring-sounds.
