Midsomer Norton Sixth Form’s Student Council has donated £500 each to two South West-based charities. The money was raised from student fundraising events across the two Sixth Form sites at Norton Hill and Somervale Schools.

The £500 raised was generously matched 1:1 through the corporate gift matching service, ‘Benevity’, bringing the grand total to £1,000. Donations will be shared equally between two regional charities:

Designability and Children’s Hospice South West – the Sixth Form’s chosen charities for 2016/2017.

Designability develop assistive technologies to support and improve the lives of children and adults living with a disability. They are based at the Royal United Hospital, Bath, and their services include a loan scheme which provides free Wizzybug powered wheelchairs to disabled children under five.

Children’s Hospice South West helps support children with life-limiting conditions and their families by providing a range of services, including respite care and emotional support. They are based in North Somerset and are trying to raise awareness that they also support families across B&NES, as they receive the least amount of referrals here, for families to benefit from using the hospice.

Hosting a Charities Week at the beginning of November, the Sixth Form Student Council worked to co-ordinate bake sales, teacher versus student football matches and Mario Kart videogame tournaments – all enthusiastically supported by students. Fundraising reached its conclusion with a Charity Christmas Jumper Day on December 16th.

Victoria Jones, the Sixth Form’s Head of Charity was ‘overwhelmed’ by the support of students. She said: “We’ve raised an amazing amount of money for two fantastic

charities – one of which I’m closely involved with myself – and it’s all thanks to the students at both schools and the Benevity organisation.”

Coinciding with the Charity Christmas Jumper Day, the annual Community Christmas Party invited more than one hundred members of the local community to Somervale School for an afternoon of festive fun, food and bingo.

“Once again, the event was a huge success – one of our most successful – and the

elderly community loved it,” said Louise Friend, Assistant Director of the Sixth Form.

Morgan Perry