Primary school children run as many laps as they can to raise more than £1,000 to help rough sleepers in Northampton

A primary school has raised more than £1,000 for rough sleepers in Northampton after pupils ran laps of a playing field.

Stoke Bruerne Primary School, which is relatively small and has only 65 children on roll, teaches one ‘core value’ each term.

During this term, staff have been educating pupils about generosity and were keen to support a local charity.

The school chose Project 16:15, which offers support to rough sleepers in Northampton, as one of the children’s parents is involved in the charity.

To raise money for the project, all of the children took part in the ‘Stoke Bruerne Sprint’, whereby they ran as many laps as they could around the school playing field at allotted times throughout this week.

Deputy headteacher, Stacy Powell, said: “We are always encouraging the children to choose charities to support and we usually do this through our school council, but it’s difficult to get the council together in Covid times.

“But it’s important to support charities that are local to us so we wanted to support this one as our way of giving back.

“The children are really proud of their achievement and the amount of money they have raised.

“The children are also all so pleased to know that they have supported a local charity and that they are helping young homeless people to survive the winter.

“They are thrilled with the generosity from all of the parents and families from the school.

“For such a small school to raise this amount of money is phenomenal.”

Simon Rash, one the trustees of Project 16:15 and a parent of a child at the school, said: “It’s unbelievable how much they have raised.

“For such a small school, we thought they were being adventurous with a £500 target, but they absolutely smashed that.

“I know the kids are proud and so they should be.

“Every penny that gets donated, 100 percent goes into making sure we can carry on doing what we are doing on the streets.

“It enables us to keep doing what we are doing and that’s being out on the streets with food twice a day, seven days a week.”

The school’s JustGiving page is still open and funds can be donated here.

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