On Friday 7th May the children were excited to come into school dressed for our Number themed non-uniform day to raise money for the NSPCC charity. The children were very creative with number themed dresses, t-shirts and jumpers, numbers painted on their faces and even dressed as dice!

The NSPCC is the leading children’s charity and have been looking after children for over 130 years! The money raised for and by the charity goes towards a number of different important initiatives that all work to prevent abuse of children and to support children and families. These include the NSPCC Helpline which parents, carers, professionals, children or anyone concerned about a child can contact for advice or guidance on next steps that they may need to take to keep a child safe. They provide therapeutic services and in addition to the research that they undertake, they also campaign for change to make children’s lives better. 

The NSPCC also works with schools throughout the academic year and the children are all familiar with the Speak Out Stay Safe campaign that the charity has ran alongside schools for a number of years. The children enjoyed meeting Buddy the speech bubble last year when we welcomed an NSPCC lady who came into school to talk to us in an assembly. In response to the coronavirus pandemic they have provided teachers and schools with a number of online resources and promoted the importance of Speak Out Stay Safe Online as the children were spending more time online due to the remote learning programme. This was also in response to not being able to see our friends and family as much due to the various lockdowns that we have had.

So today we were able to combine a love of mathematics and work with our friends to solve maths problems throughout the school and complete challenges in our classes but also to learn about the importance of the work of the NSPCC. From Number Hunts around school - the children were amazed at how many numbers are around us in school all the time! They enjoyed some maths themed quizzes and Mystery Challenges when they had to solve each step of the puzzle to be able to move onto the next stage. Each class also completed Buddy’s Key Challenge which required the children to work in a group to solve some quick mental maths questions which when the correct answer was given they received a piece of a puzzle  -once they had collected the puzzle pieces they then needed to work together to complete the Buddy Key Picture - it was a frantic race to build the puzzle together!

Throughout the day we have highlighted the work of the NSPCC and reminded the children of our NSPCC posters and helpline numbers that are in every classroom and around the school and also in the Homework Diary. Thank you parents for supporting this important charity and helping us to talk about the work of the NSPCC and helping to raise its profile for any child that may in the future need support for themselves or a friend in need.

Miss Kerry Duff

Head of Junior School