A FUN-FILLED week saw Solihull Preparatory School raise more than £11,000 to help build a nursery in South Africa and to help chimps who have lost their natural habitat.
The annual fundraising Charity Week saw pupils and staff take part in five days of activities including a break the rules day, staff dodgeball match, a book sale, a movie afternoon, a talent show, and a non-uniform day in aid of The Jane Goodall Institute, in support of the Earthly Touch Foundation and Chimp Eden in South Africa.
A highlight was the tuckshop takeover where J4 pupils set up in the Warwick Road campus Refectory to sell breaktime treats to Senior School pupils.
This year’s total will go towards the making of 60,000 eco bricks, working with the Earthly Touch Foundation to help build a new nursery school in a large informal township called Diepsloot, in the heart of Johannesburg in Gauteng province.
The funds will also provide water tanks, gardening equipment, seedlings, and training for 35 community food gardens.
For the Chimp Eden Sanctuary, the monies raised will purchase microscopes, leaf blowers, fog machines, carry hammocks, cameras and more – and each year group in the Prep School will adopt a chimp.
Mark Penney, head of Solihull Prep School, said: “Yet again our school community have been magnificent in supporting the children in raising funds for those things they feel passionate about.
“Their commitment and determination to make the world a better place by tackling environmental, animal and humanitarian challenges head on, is heartwarming. Crucially, it’s also making a very big, positive difference.”
Both beneficiary charities were chosen by members of the Prep School’s Roots and Shoots Club, further strengthening Solihull School’s links with the global community conservation organisation, the Jane Goodall Institute.
A spokesperson for the Institute said: “Congratulations to all who worked (and continue working) hard to support these worthy projects. Roots & Shoots, South Africa and Chimp Eden will be so pleased and, like all of us, deeply appreciative of your support.”
Members of the Roots and Shoots Club are now working on their next project, a Minted clothing campaign calling for the recycling of pre-loved Christmas jumpers. Donated items will be sold, and the funds raised will provide sustainable grow bags of produce to feed very poor families in North Sri Lanka and, in cases where a surplus may arise, a much-needed income stream.
