Charitable shoebox donations will be welcome in November to support 'Operation Christmas Child'

Following on from the Year 6 highly successful fundraising coffee morning for Macmillan, children across the school will be learning about our next charity campaign. During assemblies on Monday 19th October children will be introduced to ‘Operation Christmas Child’.

 

Since 1990, ‘Operation Christmas Child’ – an initiative of the Christian relief and development agency Samaritan’s Purse – has been blessing underprivileged children around the world with gift-filled shoe boxes wrapped and packed by children and adults in the UK, supporting multi-faith and multi-ethnic children in need.

 

As part of our school’s wider curriculum, developing the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) experiences of our pupils, and actively living out our values such as Unity, Responsibility and Compassion, enables the school community to make a positive contribution to the wider world. In the view of a year 6 pupil,“The opportunity to make another child smile on Christmas Day makes me feel good. When I wake up on Christmas Day knowing that when I open my gifts, somebody else is unwrapping the one I made them makes me feel like I have made a difference. I will enjoy it more knowing I might have made them smile.”

 

The idea is simple. Children wrap and pack shoeboxes with a range of gifts and bring to school between the 1^st and 18^th of November with a £3.00 donation, which covers the transportation costs. Samaritan’s Purse state:

“Each shoebox is an unconditional gift, given to a child with nothing asked for, or expected in return; no pledges, no obligation; ‘no strings attached.”

 

The shoeboxes will be collected and then distributed by Samaritan’s Purse. For further details about shoebox ideas – dos and don’ts please visit the link: https://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/how-to-pack-a-shoebox/

These details will be shared with children in the assembly and discussed within class, followed up by a lesson where children will be able to plan, decorate their box and create resources for their box to contain.

 

Curriculum lead, Ms. Biedul commented, “Throughout the school year, Phases and year groups will be evaluating the opportunities children have to develop their SMSC in light of the new Fielding Challenge Curriculum, and identify further learning opportunities. Bringing the whole-school together on ‘Operation Christmas Child’, allows all children to collaborate in a shared experience providing a sense of community.” For further details, please speak to your Year Leader.