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Urban Outreach

By 20 October 2017June 2nd, 2021No Comments

Sharples prides itself on being a school for the community. Sharples prides itself on coming together and demonstrating the ‘Team Sharples’ ethos in everything we do. Sharples is a school that cares about others. This was most powerfully demonstrated in the first half term of the 2017-18 academic year as the school collected food for Urban Outreach.

Launched three weeks into a seven week term, the aim was to collect as many food items as possible to share with disadvantaged families in Bolton. Alongside this, an appeal was put out for loose change to spend in the final week of half term at the local Lidl. The four Heads of House – Mrs Heaton, Mr Hermida, Mr Hesford and Mrs Hughes – were never without their collection pots begging for loose change! Students responded positively with both the food and the cash donations.

As a result of this two-pronged collection, Sharples were, according to Urban Outreach Chief Executive Dave Bagley, able to hand over “The largest single donation we’ve had from a school before.” Between the four houses, a total of £350 was raised in just two and a half weeks. Individual contributions from students like Jennifer Brown in Year 10 (£15) and Amoni Ndabarishe in Year 9 (£10) highlighted the enthusiastic and generous nature of our students.

Hundreds of tins, packets, boxes and bottles were brought together in the school’s theatre on Thursday 19th October to illustrate just how good Sharples’ students care about others. With assistance from a selected group of students who had made an exceptional contribution to the charity collection, Urban Outreach loaded up their van and will now make sure that vulnerable families are able to access basic provisions.

Aside from the huge difference made to the community, the first inter-house charity event of the year allowed Team Sharples to demonstrate our finest qualities. We came together and united behind an incredibly worthwhile cause. In doing so, we surpassed even our wildest expectations of how successful this campaign could be. Looking at the four separate collections of food items on Thursday, an immeasurable sense of pride was felt by the Heads of Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn and Venus. The year has started in the best possible way and our students have demonstrated a kindness that will make the lives of local families better. There are many reasons to be proud of our students and our school and this is just one example.