• Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

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Pyjama Party Planned By St Mary’s Schoolkids After Newcastle Building Society Charity Challenge Win

A team of Gateshead schoolchildren are set to put their fundraising ideas for a local cancer charity into action after coming out on top in a prestigious financial education competition.

A team of Year Five pupils from St Mary’s RC Primary School in Whickham beat rivals from seven fellow Gateshead schools to win the 2019 Newcastle Building Society Boardroom Charity Challenge, which asks its young participants to develop event ideas that will both benefit their local community and make a profit for a chosen good cause.

The St Mary’s team’s idea for a big school pyjama party and the detailed plans they presented about how they would make it happen convinced the competition judges to award them the Challenge’s £1,000 first prize.

Half of the money will be used by St Mary’s to put on their fundraising event, while the other half will go towards a project that will benefit the school itself.

The winning team has decided to raise money for Gateshead-based charity Fighting All Cancers Together (FACT) in support of a number of school families who have received support from it in recent years.

Plans are now beginning to be made for holding the fundraising event in the summer term next year as part of celebrations to wave the team and their then-Year Six classmates off to high school.

Each competing school worked with teams of colleagues from Newcastle Building Society on the development of their ideas and presentations for the final, which was held at Europe’s first dedicated centre for emerging technology – PROTO – in Gateshead’s Baltic Quarter.

The seven other Gateshead schools which took part in this year’s Boardroom Charity Challenge were Falla Park, Harlow Green and Larkspur Community Primary Schools, Portobello Primary School, Oakfield Junior School, St Marys and St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Primary School, and St Philip Neri RC Primary School.

Leigh-Anne Millican, teacher at St Mary’s RC Primary School, says: “The children put a huge amount of energy and imagination into preparing for their big day, really stretching themselves to come up with the best possible presentation, and we’re all thrilled at how this effort has been recognised and rewarded.

“They came up with lots of initial ideas based around things they’d been to or would like to see happen, researched how their party plans might work in practice with their classmates and pulled together a really impressive presentation.

“Taking part in the Challenge has really helped to bring a lot of the work we’ve been doing in the classroom around money and community contributions to life, while it’s also given the team members the chance to develop new skills and increase their self-confidence.

“Some of the class would never have dreamed of standing up to make this sort of presentation not long ago, while the way in which everyone’s worked together, discussed ideas, negotiated with each other and developed their successful plan has been really impressive.

“We had a fantastic day at the finals and are already looking forward to holding what will be a wonderful event next year.”

The Boardroom Charity Challenge is an ongoing financial education programme developed by Newcastle Building Society which aims to help young people learn about becoming more financially independent.

Over the last eight years, more than 2,500 young people from schools right across the region have taken part in the Challenge, which forms part of a six-week long curriculum based learning package that teaches core numeracy and literacy skills, enables pupils to learn more about how to manage money and helps them develop their IT and presentation skills.

The Boardroom Charity Challenge is an extension of the Society’s wider financial education commitment, which sees it providing free financial information events in venues across the North East to those who want to learn more about how to manage their money, and was this year held in association with Gateshead Council.

Andrew Haigh, chief executive at Newcastle Building Society, adds: “All the teams performed fantastically well in front of the judging panel and the hard work that had gone into each of their presentations was plain to see.

“The St Mary’s team stood out by presenting us with an idea that we hadn’t heard before and a clear plan for making it happen, and thoroughly deserved to win the day.

“Financial education has long been a priority for the Society, and the information we share with hundreds of young people every year through the Boardroom Charity Challenge will hopefully set them on their way towards managing their money well right through their lifetimes.”