St Mary's Calne
Last week, the LVI hosted Charity Week 2024, raising funds for this year's charity, Lyme Disease UK. There were lots of events throughout the week including 'Guess the Sweets in a Jar', Charity Tag, a bake sale, a 'trackie' day, an afternoon of reeling plus the 24-hour Tennis Coachathon and a brilliantly uplifting Open Mic Night to finish the week.
Guess the Sweets in a Jar
We gathered a multitude of different sweets from Werther's Originals to Maoams to fill one massive jar. We counted the sweets one by one to find the winning number of 'Guess the Number of Sweets in the Jar'. Then we placed the jar alongside a register of names in the fishbowl for the duration of Charity Week for people to calculate their guesses. The closest guess was Alex W (LVI) who guessed 320 with the actual number totalling 321 sweets. Well done to Alex who won the whole jar. Don't eat them all in one go!
Charity Tag
This year, the infamous Charity Tag game was back! This is an incredibly fun game which involves one student receiving a name of another student who they must tag. Once they have tagged that person they will then receive their next target; the game continues until there is only one person left. Tag began on Monday 19th February at 8am for both students and staff. We can reveal that the staff winner is Mrs Firth and the student winner is Libby G-C from LVI. Well done and thank you to everyone who played.
Bake Sale
Great success at the bake sale! There were a variety of delicious treats with a dazzling lemon drizzle cake, and a plethora of macaroons. A huge thank you to Alice M (LV) and Kitty M (LVI) for supplying us with these - they were very much appreciated bye all of those who attended.
Trackie Day
Thursday was 'Trackie Day' encouraging everyone to wear their Lyme Disease UK trackies that we sold for fundraising during the Autumn Term. These were a great success with the trackies alone raising over £1000 and now LDUK can be advertised as Calne students spread awareness through wearing them. It was great to see the LDUK logo on pupils all around school.
Reeling
On Thursday afternoon, Atlaas H (LVI) and Eve M (UV) helped to run a Reeling event which had a great turnout of pupils from all years. We started with a classic, the Dashing White Sergent with groups of three moving around the room. Then we progressed onto a slightly more complicate dance, The Reel of the 51st, which with some excellent teaching ran somewhat smoothly by the end! Next was Strip the Willow which certainly sent some people swinging around the room as the Lower Sixth pupils spun the Fourth Form students down the line. We finished with everyone holding hands to sing a Scottish classic, Auld Lang Syne. It was a great event getting all years involved and maybe even preparing some for future reeling socials.
Last term, along with selling our trackies, we were able to sell popcorn to those watching the amazing Sound of Music production. We sold over 2kg worth of popcorn over the three productions and, despite the mess that was made, we were able to raise even more money to support LDUK.
Currently, the Enthuse page has raised almost £4,000. There is still time to donate at the link https://lymediseaseuk.enthuse.com/pf/stmaryscalnecharityweek2024
Bea W, Honor B, and Eva M, LVI
A huge thank you to the LVI Steering Group - Claire, Mary, Bea, Honor and Lara and the rest of LVI for all their hard work and enthusiasm with leading the planning of Charity Week 2024. Thank you also to all who have supported alongside; in addition to Mr Hayes (who coached the tennis) thank you to Mrs Weeden and Mr John who helped to escort the students through the night so that students could participate. Thank you to all the Music Department for their collaboration and to all colleagues who have offered support behind the scenes which ensured that the events were a success.
Finally, thank you to all parents who have supported and/or sponsored the events and the PGSM for sponsoring the delicious canapés at Open Mic Night.
Mr Slater is currently editing the video footage and in due course I look forward to sharing the final Charity Week 2024 film with you alongside the article which the students are writing, having interviewed Natasha, Co-Founder of Lyme Disease UK.
Mrs Claire Bolton, Head of Community Outreach & Partnerships