Aureus School helps three local charities.

Charity is very much at home with students at a Didcot school who have been working with three local organisations close to their hearts.​

Each one of three charities has been assigned to a house at Aureus School where the students are raising funds in a number of ways as well as making donations of their own.

The school is forging links with Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary (OAS), Carers Oxfordshire and SSNAP, supporting sick newborns and their parents at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

“All of our students were involved in the process of selecting our charities for this year. Our coaching groups put forward those that have helped our local community and they were voted for by school prefects and the coaching groups.

“Many of these charities have impacted our student and staff body in some way, with some siblings being supported through SSNAP, their pets adopted from OAS and many of our children being young carers,” said Chantalle Church, PE teacher and Head of House at the school, a member of the GLF Schools Multi-Academy Trust.

Students have held a range of events, including non-uniform days and donating gifts for parents who may have cared for babies but forgotten items for themselves such as toiletries. There has also been a collection for OAS which saw a wide range of toys, treats and food collected.

The non-uniform day alone raised £340 for SSNAP and there were numerous donations for parents supported by the charity.

“Ambition, respect and resilience are our school values. We believe that through supporting a charity, our students are able to understand other people’s perspectives of these. They are able to show ambition when they work to generate sponsors and donations, respect by learning and understanding more about the charities and they are able to visualise other people’s resilience and see the challenges they face,” said Miss Church.

A number of students are planning to run in the summer for the SSNAP and were inspired when a representative from the charity visited the school. They also heard from the charity how their gifts are appreciated.

“They have a real passion for the charities as they selected them and many of our students and staff have personal stories which link them,” said Miss Church.

“All the selected charities are local to our school, which allows us to create a close bond with them, and we have received great support from our community. As they are all local, we have been able to get them into our school to meet our students.”

Fundraising will continue during the rest of the year including a raffle and non-uniform days on the list.​