Private School News

The FARNBOROUGH HILL SCHOOL Challenge

Yesterday Farnborough Hill Sixth Formers Sophie Crisp and Anna Nicholas, both 17 from Farnham, organised a very special charity event in aid of local charity Disability Challengers. The Farnborough Hill Challenge was a sponsored event where participants walked, jogged or ran a distance of 5km in the school’s beautiful parkland. The whole school was off timetable for the afternoon so that everyone was able to join in the fun and take part. The participants were blessed with good weather and the atmosphere was tremendous. Everyone threw themselves into the spirit of the event, but perhaps the most notable participant was Lauren Dockerty, of Aldershot, a student in Year 9, who currently needs a wheelchair. She completed the course and Sophie said ‘Everyone was really supportive of Lauren and walked alongside her to the finish line.’

Disability Challengers is a local children’s charity passionate about delivering vital play and leisure opportunities to disabled children, young people and their families. Through their two full-time centres in Farnham and Guildford, and satellite schemes across the region, every year they give over 1000 children a place to be creative, make friends and challenge their impairments through play. The charity is close to Sophie and Anna’s hearts because they both used to volunteer there and Sophie now works for Disability Challengers on Saturdays and in the holidays.

At the time of going to press the money is still rolling in but we hope to raise a substantial amount for this very worthwhile cause. Anna herself has raised £1300 but we will wait to see whether she wins the individual prize awarded to the person gaining the most sponsorship money. The Headmistress has promised that the class raising the highest amount will be treated to a bouncy castle in school for a day.

Anna and Sophie loved organising the event, even though it was time consuming and hard work. Anna commented that it was tricky fitting in their AS level exams at the same time! Sophie said ‘it was a huge success and everyone seemed to have a lovely afternoon. So many people helped us out and we would like to thank them all very much.’

Photo: Lucy Sharma (Disability Challengers), Dee Andrews (Biology teacher who helped with the organisation), Anna Nicholas, Sophie Crisp, Jessica Klepacz (Disability Challengers) and Headmistress Sarah Buckle.