Each year our Year 10 students take part in First Give, a charity project which not only aims to raise awareness and money for worthy causes, but also develops the team work, research, presentation, and organisational skills of participants.
Year 10 students are split into small groups of approximately five per team within their PSHE class. They are then given the task of selecting a charity to be their benefactor and coming up with a fundraising idea to raise money for their charity. The teams within the class then present to each other and vote for which they think is best to represent their class. The winning team from this round then set to work on bringing their ideas to life in order to raise as much awareness and money as possible for their charity.
The charities chosen from class winning teams this year included:
- Croydon Drop In (CDI) - Tennage Mental Health
- Men's Minds Matter - Men's Mental Helath
- Change Grow Live - Drug Awareness
- Rape Crisis South London (RASASC) - Support for female victims of sexual assault and rape
- Off the Record - Youth Mental Health
- Power the Fight - Knife Crime
Our students then set to work on setting up their fund raising projects which saw teachers battle it out in a lunch time quiz and the losing team being sponged by students who paid to throw a sponge, launching a competition to design anti-knife crime bunting for Year 7 students which was then displayed across the agora, a movie afternoon to promote good mental health, and poster campaigns.
The winners were decided in the final presentation afternoon where we welcomed external judges including Hamish Robertson from Coulsdon Manor Rotary Club, Cllr Andy Stranack who is a Councillor for Selsdon Vale and Forestdale, and also Cabinet Member for Communities and Culture, who listened to each of the teams present what action they had taken to raise awareness and money. This year’s winning team had the CDI Talk Bus visit the school for half a day and held a football tournament to promote the charity; they also promoted exercise as a good way of managing mental health. In recognition of their hard work, they won £1000 from First Give to give to their Charity, Croydon Drop In (CDN) which will be added to the money they also raised.
A student from the winning team commented "First Give has allowed me to develop so many skills such as teamwork and managing a project. It made me realise that I can make an impact."
Well done to all the students who took part, we are proud of each and evert one of you.
