Brackenfield School have announced their school charity for the year. Having previously supported a variety of charities in the past, the school have again selected a charity with strong links to the school.
This year, the school will be supporting The Home Farm Trust, a charity that operates nationally to support people with learning disabilities. After being founded in 1962 by a group of parents with children with learning disabilities, HFT now support 2,500 adults across the country. This is something that HFT could not do without the support of donations and fundraising.
On Monday, Miss Kitchingman, a teacher at Brackenfield who has family connections with The Home Farm Trust, gave an assembly on the charity and the work that they do, explaining how important the support that they provide is.
In addition to The Home Farm Trust being selected as this year’s school charity, Miss Kitchingman is also running the London Marathon to raise money for the cause.
This will be her first marathon and she is keeping a blog of her journey (www.misskrunsthemarathon.blogspot.com) to share with the children at school and anyone else who would like to read it! It is Miss Kitchingman’s hope that documenting the ups and downs of her marathon training on a public platform will raise the profile of both reading and writing across the school, as she believes it is important for pupils to see adults they know producing writing for a purpose.
She also hopes to inspire the children to be physically active both in and out of school, hosting a weekly running club at Brackenfield, as well as encouraging pupils to attend their local Parkrun at the weekend.
However the children’s involvement in this challenge doesn’t end there. Miss Kitchingman is asking all the pupils at Brackenfield to suggest a song for her marathon playlist, to encourage her around all 26.2 miles.
Mrs Matthews, Headteacher at Brackenfield, said:
We are very excited to be supporting a charity that has a personal link to one of our staff. Miss Kitchingman has been able to show the children photos and family stories that demonstrate just how vital the work of this charity has been for her family. The children were so inspired they have already arranged their first Cake Sale for next week!
