Glyn School hopes small change can make a big difference

There is an old saying ‘look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves’, but at the Glyn School in Ewell, Euros, dollars and any other currency you may care to mention are all helping make a big difference to the running of the school

The Glyn Parent/Staff Association has set up a foreign currency and coin collection service for people to get rid of any unwanted small change after overseas trips and for the school to benefit. “It’s a very simple idea but has a really significant impact,” said Glyn parent and PSA administrator Scott Cragg.

“The PSA has a very important role to play in the running of school life but depends upon people giving up their spare time and coming up with the most creative ways possible to help run the service we are trying to provide. We’d already registered with Easyfundraising, the
internet cashback site where the PSA gets a donation from certain online shop transactions, then we added the Gift Aid scheme, and someone came up with this idea too."

Glyn School is a member of the GLF Schools group, a Surrey-based multi-academy trust which now runs over a dozen schools across the south east, and is based on a model of strong collaborative working. Using the services of a company called Cash 4 Coins, Glyn’s PSA realised that there must be a decent amount of money in small denominations sitting at the bottom of cupboards and drawers across the school, so they put out an appeal – with instant success.

“We had set ourselves a target of £50 for the first collection, so it was a wonderful surprise when the company got back to us and told us we’d raised £171, which shows what a hugely successful and simple scheme it is,” Scott explained.

“We’ve got another 10 kg worth of assorted currency to send off, so we can’t wait to find out what that is worth, and we’d like to expand the scheme into local businesses as well as the Glyn school family. That way, the local community would really be putting something back into the school, which is already at its heart, so everyone wins.”