Pupils at Beech Hall School were recently challenged to participate in Captain Tom’s 100 Challenge, designed to get people taking part in creative charity challenges themed around the number 100 to mark what would have been famous fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore’s 101st birthday.
In order to make the challenge robust and to raise as much money as possible for Beech Hall’s chosen charity Mencap, pupils tackled challenges both at school and at home. Beech Hall’s fundraising target for Mencap has been set to £25,000, which will make a real difference to the lives of so many people. The Captain Tom Challenge has already seen pupils raise £2003 and the current total raised so far for Mencap is an impressive £6437.
The first in school challenge saw pupils, staff and parents attempting to swim a combined 100 miles in the school’s outdoor pool in a week, a total of 10,000 lengths. Participants in the swimming challenge smashed their target and completed more than 11,000 lengths, a truly phenomenal feat.
Another in school challenge saw members of Mrs Hayes’ extracurricular gardening clubs plant 100 seeds, including wildflowers, herbs and edible flowers in the school’s gardens.
The final challenge that took place in school was to undertake 100 acts of kindness, underpinning pupils’ concentration on basic manners and decorum, behaviour and interaction with and towards one another. Examples of this have included helping a friend who was feeling sad, offering to help a teacher, and displaying impeccable manners consistently and reliably.
In addition to taking on various challenges at school, pupils were also encouraged to complete one of three home-based challenges over Bank Holiday Weekend. The first one was to create a Lego structure using exactly 100 Lego bricks. The second challenge was to write a 100-word story, and the third challenge was to carry out 100 minutes of work at home to help out around the house, which could range from helping to wash the car, tidy the garden, or cleaning out a pet’s home.
Headmaster James Allen commented on the challenge and said, “At Beech Hall, we want children to be inspired to believe that anything is achievable if you set your mind to it. Everybody has been inspired by Captain Tom and he was a little bit of sunshine for everyone last year when we were all going through a very dark time. Captain Tom’s belief that tomorrow will be a better day is a wonderful motto and we want to inspire our pupils to believe in that, too.”
