Northamptonshire school ‘overwhelmed’ by young pupils, aged four to seven, fundraising nearly £1,200

A Northamptonshire school is “overwhelmed” that some of its young pupils, aged four to seven, and their families have fundraised nearly £1,200.

Paulerspury C.E. Primary School, in Towcester, was in “desperate need” of a new play corner for their youngest children – with the reception, year one and year two students all in one class.

They set the 21 pupils a ‘grow your pound’ challenge over the recent half term and were “amazed with all the innovative, entrepreneurial and intuitive ideas they came up with”.

The staff were pleased to see the children and their families “embrace the challenge with such enthusiasm” and “create a true community-spirited experience”.

Their class teacher, Julie Herlihy, shared that they hoped to raise between £200 and £300 to invest in a domestic role play area for the children.

Having given out just 21 £1 coins, Julie said they have been “blown away” by how everyone was so invested in making more money to improve the school.

“We were completely overwhelmed,” said Julie. “It was a lovely show of support and for everyone to get behind it in that way meant a lot.”

At the end of last week, a celebration assembly was held to welcome the families into the school and hand out awards for the children’s hard work.

Julie added: “It was an exhibition of the independent and original ideas. We celebrated the whole total and the thought that had gone into it all.

One pupil made a giant cardboard tree, which they named the money tree. Autumn leaves were sold for £1 each and were then stuck to the giant tree, with the coins, to bring in when the students returned from half term.

Others made their own Christmas card packs to sell, offered bespoke family portraits, washed cars, baked, and ran games such as duck races and guessing how many sweets were in a jar.

When asked if there is anything she would like to say to the families, Julie said: “Just how appreciative we are of their support. The children in our class are young and wouldn’t have been able to do it without their families.”

The money is being spent on a high quality modern living play kitchen, suitable for the age range of the pupils and will improve the provision in the classroom.

Julie says there is “so much” to learn from this type of role play, including empathy and language skills, and the children have been very involved in picking the kitchen – which is hoped to arrive by Christmas.