School is MAD to make a difference

Not to be outdone by the recent successes of the school’s Community Sports Leadership Team and the Medieval Thymes (Bodiam Castle Project), the Claremont Senior School Make a Difference Fundraising Team having been doing just as their name suggests.

The ‘MAD’ team (as they are known at school), are a group of Year 9 students who meet every Wednesday afternoon as one of school’s Community Service Projects.

Since the start of the academic year, they have organised and run two major fundraising events at the school, a Christmas party, and more recently, a talent show - Claremont’s Got Talent.

The initiative is a triumph for all concerned, providing valuable organisational and management skills for the members of the MAD team, a tremendous amount of fun and entertainment for all participants and much needed fundraising for local organisations.

Through these two events alone the MAD team have raised just under £600 for their first chosen charity, K.H.o.C.A., a Kent based charity which supports people with severe learning disabilities.

Giles Perrin, headmaster of Claremont Senior School at Bodiam, said: “There is no better example of how our co-curricular programme delivers enrichment, learning and life experiences to all those who are involved”.

The MAD team has recently forged a partnership with another local charity, BACE, a grassroots charity aiding children in The Gambia to enter the education system, providing learning materials to established schools, as well as developing new schools in areas where they do not currently exist.

The MAD team will be working on a number of fundraising ideas over the summer to raise money for BACE, but have already made a start by asking fellow students to donate old pencil cases and unused stationery to provide much-needed basic equipment for schoolchildren in Bonsa, and reading and recording children’s stories which will be sent out to the Gambia to help with the teaching of English.