Supporting the local community is an important part of school life at ESMS and this year the students and staff had fun developing a range of fundraising activities in and outside the school.
At The Mary Erskine School the year started with a collection for NW Foodbank. We felt this was more important than ever this year, with so many more people relying on foodbanks at the moment. Elsewhere across the School, staff held a Wear It Pink Day, for Breast Cancer Now and students sold ribbons, for World AIDS Day. In November Ayaana A (S2) organised an event to celebrate Diwali, raising £271 for Shakti Women’s Aid
Christmas is always a busy fundraising time at ESMS and this year was no different. MES held a Christmas Accessory day, a Christmas Fair and a collection of presents for Social Bite’s Festival of Kindness. The presents were delivered to the Christmas tree in St Andrew’s Square and then distributed to people throughout Scotland, who are homeless and vulnerable. Meanwhile SMC students held a Christmas Candy Cane stall and the Junior School raised money wearing Christmas jumpers.
Two non-uniform days at MES were held to raise money for our nominated charities: The Chesney Trust, SSPCA and Edinburgh Women’s Aid. Students and staff also felt that they wanted to do something to help the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, so they held a third non-uniform day to raise funds for DEC humanitarian appeal.
During the summer term 123 MES students from S2 and 16 members of staff took part in our Youth Philanthropy Initiative. Groups of students competed in class competitions to win £200 for charities, including Open Door, Young Carers, Hopscoth, ECAS and Maggies. Many of the groups then decided to carry out additional fund-raising to raise money for their charities with cake and candy sales. The winning groups took part in a live final event in the Mar Hall. The winning group, from Torridon, won a further £3000 for the baby loss awareness charity Held in Our Hearts. After the event we received an email from a member of the audience with an anonymous donation for the other five teams who she felt had advocated so well for their charities. This has brought the combined total to £8600!
Stewart’s Melville College students were also busy raising money to support several charities and causes this year, including support for victims of the Ukraine war, the Syria and Turkey earthquake and closer to home a number of charities that aim to provide vital services for those in need within Edinburgh.
Sweet sales were particularly popular fundraising activities at SMC, including Valentine’s sweets which students could arrange to be delivered with a loving message, to someone in the school. At Easter time, the students helped Spartans by collecting Easter Eggs so that children in our community would receive a visit from the Easter Bunny. An Easter Chocolate Sale was also held to raise money for the Tailor Ed foundation, which supports children with autism.
SMC students also continued to support Finlay’s Friends this year, a charity set up by History teacher, Mrs Bennett, to provide hospital kits with essential items for parents whose children are suddenly admitted to hospital. The students held a non-uniform day, and a Finlay’s Friends goodie stall, raising £1,850.
In the summer term SMC students set up an LGBT+ stall to celebrate Pride selling ‘rainbow’ sweets and other goodies. SMC library also donated a pride flag for students and teachers to sign to celebrate and support Pride.
Supporting the community starts from Nursery and all the children at ESMS Junior School have had fun raising money for charity this year. Fundraising activities have ranged from cakes sales, book sales and sales of the Student Junior School Newspaper, to bringing in Charity Pennies every Friday. Overall the Junior School raised over £13,290.88 to support: Simpson's Special Care Babies, RNLI, Read for Good, The Yard, The Chesney Trust, BRC Ukraine, Ewkendeni School for the visually impaired (Malawi), Friends of Lagganlia, My Name’5 Doddie, Oaklands School, Comic Relief, Ukrainian Appeal Women’s Aid. We were particularly proud of the 26 Primary 7 children who walked the West Highland Way in May, raising an incredible £14,926.61 for the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.
Huge thanks go to all our parents who do so much to support these charitable activities. We are looking forward to seeing what new ideas the students come up with next session!
