On Thursday 1 May, we held our first Home Clothes Charity Day of the term to support a wonderful cause. Mrs German, our School Logistics Manager, is a member of the Southwest Independent Schools Safety Association (SWISSA), a group that regularly meets to discuss logistics and related matters. The Director of Facilities at Ballard School, also part of this group, proposed a project to repurpose pre-owned academic books that would otherwise go to waste at the end of the academic year.

Through this initiative, Ballard School has partnered with the Schools for Sierra Leone campaign, supported by Street Child (https://www.street-child.org/).

The aim is to send pre-owned academic books to Sierra Leone, where they will be distributed to schools in the hope of providing children with better access to education. However, to cover the substantial transport costs, participating schools need to raise funds. At the end of the Summer Term, schools will collect the books and deliver them to Ballard School, where they will be placed in a shipping container for transport to Sierra Leone.

A big thank you to Mrs German for making the arrangements to ensure the books are delivered and safely transported. Once in Sierra Leone, the books will be distributed by Street Child. To help cover the transport costs, all schools involved will each be holding a Home Clothes Charity Day, with some of the larger schools also hosting additional fundraising events.

Towards the end of the term, Mrs German will be arranging for collection boxes to be placed around the school, where staff and students can donate any unwanted books, such as revision guides or novels. Environmentally, it is far better to recycle these items than to let them end up in landfill.

We’re looking forward to one more Home Clothes Charity Day later this term, and we will share the details with you soon. Now that our LVI exams are behind us, we will be focusing on planning events for 2025-6, so please do keep an eye out for posters and feel free to get in touch if you have any suggestions. A future highlight will be our next Sleep Out event in October 2025!

Clemmie and May, LVI