Young Enterprise & Compassion at Christmas Time!

Christmas is a time for giving  – the children at St. Mary’s have gone ‘above and beyond’ bringing Christmas enterprise and charity to Claughton-on-Brock! The Wool & Stitches and Crafty Cafod Club Creation groups set up stalls full of handmade gifts to sell – to raise money for Alder Hey Children’s’ Hospital and Cafod World Gifts – supporting people in need both near and far. The children wanted to continue their support for Alder Hey, as it is such an important hospital to many families in the north west of England. A big thank you to Miss Watson and to the families of our young people who supported them making handmade gifts for Christmas. It is wonderful to see such care and love given at this time of year.

 

After all the money was counted  – we had £240 to split between the two charities; that is a huge amount of money for such a small school and community, showing the success of all those handcrafted gifts! Now the really important job began – £120 to spend on Cafod World Gifts to help people around the world who are less fortunate than ourselves. Our two crafty groups, along with the school council ( Year 1- Year 6 represented) conducted some market research with whole school, to help them come to a decision about who to support and who needs it the most. Following a lot of discussion and voting the children decided to spent the money on:

A Safe Place To Call Home  – a gift to help vulnerable families at risk of homelessness

Water For A Family – A life saving gift which provides families with safe, clean water for drinking and cooking.

Chirpy Chickens  – A gift to give families the extra help they need by providing chickens so they can produce eggs to eat or sell.

Happy Queen Bee – The queen bee attracts more bees to the hive, which produces honey for families to eat or sell.

Trees for Life – Supplies a family with tools and training needed to produce their own tree nursery! These trees can produce fruit to eat or can be sold at market.

Watering Can – This gift helps farmers survive a drought by providing them with tools to keep crops

 

The children found it difficult to come to a conclusion, as there are many different types of Cafod World Gifts that can help people in different ways. The children debated with each other to come to a final decision on the six gifts. In doing this the children got t0 experience democracy (one of our British Values) and well as managing a budget and the needs of families, prioritisng where support should go and where it is needed the most. The care, compassion and respect shown by the children was wonderful to see and experience – they are fantastic young people and they are a credit to their families. The conclusion for the gifts were based on how some gifts can be mutually beneficial. One child commented, ‘The fruit trees, watering can and bees can work towards pollination and offer habitats for animals, as well as oxygenating the planet!”

These children have embodied the spirit of giving at Christmas. Have a lovely Christmas everyone, I hope St. Nic fills up your stockings with wonderful gifts this Christmas!