Worthing school celebrates milestone of raising more than £100,000 for charity

Orchards Junior School was visited by Worthing West MP Sir Peter Bottomley, who marked the occasion by presenting a giant cheque for £102,800 to its Charity Club.

He said he was especially amazed by how wonderful and caring the school community was in doing so much for charity.

Fiona McCarthy, deputy head and curriculum co-ordinator, said it was an 'incredible sum' and the money had been raised over the past 11 years for a range of local, national and international charities.

She and fellow teacher Jo Dodson set up the club in 2013. They wanted to raise awareness of issues that affected not only their local community but the wider world.

Fiona said: "Over the years, children who attended the club have decided which charities they wanted to support, planned events to raise money and promoted these events across the school community.

"We never thought when we started out that we would raise this much money. Our parents and families are incredibly generous and always support every event organised. We could not have achieved this without the whole school community."

One of their proudest achievements is the annual Reindeer Run for Chestnut Tree House and to date, Orchards has raised more than £46,000 for the children’s hospice.

Other chosen causes have included a range of cancer charities, the Air Ambulance, Blue Fin Ward at Worthing Hospital, Children in Need, Comic Relief and the Red Cross.

Orchards has also raised funds for the Philippines Disaster Fund, Indonesian Earthquake Appeal and more recently for Ukraine.

Jo said: "I feel so proud of what the club has achieved over the years and of the hard work and dedication of students past and present who have contributed to it."

The club continues to flourish and has more events planned for this year, including an Easter raffle and a Sports Day sausage fest.