Charity

We believe that it is the spiritual and moral principles, nurtured daily, that makes our school unique. At St Stephen’s School, everything we do is for the benefit of the children. But, as a forward-thinking, modern school, we have a responsibility also to educate pupils about their obligations to care about wider society and the environment.

Every opportunity is taken to emphasise that tolerance, understanding and compassion are essential to living in a vibrant and caring multi-cultural society.

At St Stephen’s Church of England Primary School, we have a strong emphasis on encouraging our pupils to become courageous advocates, not just locally, but nationally and globally.

This principle of promoting the common good is wide ranging. The School raises funds for two specific charities each year chosen by the House Captains and pupils. Their charities for this year are https://www.wwf.org.uk and https://warpaws.org. Children are also empowered to fundraise independently and take part in charity events beyond the school gates that build essential skills beyond the curriculum.

We have a number of causes close to our hearts, culture and belief system that we regularly contribute to including Down Syndrome Awareness, the British Legion poppy appeal, Show Racism the Red Card and a Hispanic charity. More details on some of these great initiatives below.

Each year, parents, staff and students come together to participate in a fund-raising trip for a specific charity. In previous years this has included climbing Mount Snowdon and a sponsored walk around the Isle of Wight.

In the last academic year, we have extended a shared goal to review our environmental impact and protect what we value today for future generations. This has been demonstrated by a conscious move to purchasing more sustainable and traceable materials, working regularly towards a culture of reduce, recycle and reuse. We are delighted to announce that the Eco-Committee, made up of our student school councillors, have helped us achieve an Eco-Schools Green Flag. In November ’22, Cristina from City Harvest Charity came into our school to tell the children about the role of the charity. The children were shocked to learn that 1 in 4 children in London do not know where their next meal will come from. The children were encouraged to reflect on the role that they play within the community to help reduce food waste. This linked to our addition of ‘Lunch Angels’, who are Year 6 representatives, who collect food waste at lunchtime into special bins, which mean that our food waste can be disposed of in a more ethical way by being turned into energy. Read more on our Eco-Schools work here.

Other student-led initiatives include expanding our Walk to School Week to help reduce air pollution and growing more fruit, vegetables and herbs in our urban garden.

Our Playground Buddies scheme is a new initiative to involve older children in the smooth running and fun needed at playtime. Year 6 children volunteer to take on the role and wear the snazzy new high-vis jackets whilst on duty. Each buddy signs a pledge to confirm their understanding of the role and receives training, especially around how to sort out minor disputes. Read more here.

Instilling these long-term values of social responsibility and awareness is crucial. In turn, we are delighted that our pupils are discovering the inestimable rewards of being kind, considerate and compassionate towards others.

 

Here we are in action

Show Racism The Red Card

We raised just over £500 for the charity ‘Show Racism the Red Card.’ For the fourth year in a row, we have supported the excellent work this charity carries out. Our pupils continued already well-established conversations in class about celebrating our differences throughout the school the day and our whole school felt truly bonded in our commitment to being anti-racist.

 

The Royal Brirish Legion Poppy Appeal

We have been raising money for The Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal. The Royal British Legion is at the heart of a national network that supports our Armed Forces community. They provide lifelong support to serving and ex-serving personnel and their families.

Streetlytes

For DT day this year, we made a hearty, winter’s soup to be given to the charity Streetlytes. Streetlytes is a charity which provides homeless people, people who suffer from food poverty and even lonely people a chance to socialise and be given some warm food and a chance to get to know the community. In preparation for making the soup, we met with Gary – a local volunteer for Streetlytes – he showed us how anyone can be affected by poverty and as an example he told us of his own story. He was born into a very wealthy family, went to a private school then graduated from Cambridge University. Suddenly, he was forced to live on the streets where he stayed for three and a half years before managing to be steady financially.

 

This story impacted us greatly because it showed us that truly anyone can be afflicted by poverty. This visit made us even more excited to start creating our soup as we knew that it would go to a great cause and we were all really eager to help in any way that we could. Whilst making our soup, we learnt different cooking techniques and we all helped in the kitchen. After having created the soup, we all had the opportunity to taste a small amount. Whilst tasting it, we were told to critique it and think of things that we could have done better. It was a great experience and we were so glad to be helping out in any way that we could.

 

By Elena Y6

 

 

 

Twinkle Little Santa

Twinkle Little Santa Newsletter

Library Donation from MADL

Our school library at St Stephen’s Primary CE Primary School in Shepherds Bush was thrilled to receive a £1000 donation form MADL (make a difference locally) charity team through our nearby NISA grocers.

 

This kind donation came at a very timely moment as we have been working hard to develop our school Library to reflect our diverse school community.  We used the money allocated to purchase books written by diverse authors and books with illustrations representing our multicultural school community. Please look at this page of our school website to see recent developments regarding diversity & the curriculum in our school Diversity in the Curriculum – St-Stephens (ststephensce.lbhf.sch.uk).

 

The children were delighted with the new collection of books and wasted no time in getting stuck in. Here at St Stephen’s CE Primary School we believe that in creating a culture of ‘reading for pleasure’ in our school, there is a responsibility to represent all of our children in the stories that they read and to inspire them as much as possible through the books in our school library.  Thank MADL and NISA from all of us here at St Stephen’s.

DEC Ukraine Appeal

DEC Ukraine Appeal

Happy Mother’s Day 2022 to all mum’s everywhere and thank you for everything!

Here, the House Captains are working hard to prepare for their Mother’s Day lunch; with nearly 100 ‘covers’ they have their work cut out. They’ve been trained well mums.

The House Captains unanimously agreed to donate all the money raised from their Mother’s Day Lunch, on Sunday, to the DEC Ukraine Appeal – £2,000 so with the money from two cake sales and our online giving via Parentmail our grand total stands at £4,000 – Massive silent cheer to everyone who has given, baked, bought, turned up or cleared up! Thank you.

St Stephen's Walk the Wight

Walking the Isle of Wight for the Ukraine and Our School

In June 2022 over 200 pupils and their families walked a large proportion of the Isle of Wight. Not Glastonbury 2022 for our merry bunch of campers, but an Isle of Wight festival with a difference! Hundreds of our community hiked 18k across the island to the Needles last weekend, raising huge amounts for FOSS with loads of fun en route! Thank you for all your sponsorship  – the money raised will make a difference to all our children and the Ukraine.

We spent a joyous weekend comping together, sharing food, walking and generally having an amazing time! The aim of the trip was for the children to secure sponsorship for the walk and set up JustGiving pages, which they did brilliantly. We raised over £10,000 and had the most superb time together.