Sheffield Girls' go above and bear-yond for charity

Since hearing about the city’s latest sculpture trail for us– Sheffield Girls Infant, Junior and Senior School decided to take their fundraising to the next level.

Not only will the Infant School be having a Little Bear, but the Junior and Senior School will be sponsoring a Big Bear sculpture as well to make their mark on the city-wide sculpture trail.

Sheffield Girls’ wanted to show the city that a unique feature of their school is the Pre-School to Sixth Form education, with the girls learning journey starting at the age of three and ending after A-level at age 18.

The school didn’t want any of the community to miss out on being involved in one of the biggest fundraising events of the year.

The sculpture trail will run for 10 weeks from July – September this summer and will be raising money to transform The Cancer and Leukaemia Ward at Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

The Infant School is committed to raising a minimum total of £750 for their Little Bear by the 25th May. They have begun their fundraising with a ‘Bring your bear to school day’ where they spent the day sewing felt bears, making bear headbands, bear bookmarks and even some bear wrapping paper to sell at their next event ‘bear bake and crafts sale’.

Finally, the younger girls are planning a ‘sponsored bear hunt’ from Endcliffe Park to Forge Dam where they will look for famous bears hiding in the woods. With their first event raising £100 the school is confident they will be able to raise the rest and even more.

Helen Willatt, Year 2 Class Teacher at Sheffield Girls’ Infant School, said: “Having taken part in the Herd of Sheffield a few years ago, our pupils were keen to be involved again as we have numerous connections to Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

“A number of older girls have gone on to work at the hospital, alongside many of our parents and lots of our school community who have benefitted from the wonderful service the hospital provides.

“The Infant School girls and Snowdrops Preschool children have been incredibly dedicated to fundraising activities so far and they’ve all loved bringing their favourite bears to school. We are all enjoying seeing the money come in and we have been colouring in a ‘totaliser’ to see how much money we have raised so far.

“In the Junior and Senior School, the girls will be getting their thinking caps on to raise money for the Big Bear as well, although we’ve already sponsored the bear, we wanted to raise even more money for the charity. We want the whole school to get behind the fundraising fun over the next few months before the bears hit the streets in summer.

“Our girls love a fundraising challenge and are always keen to support a local charity which they know is such an important part of our community.”

The Little Bears will be joining the sculpture trail this July along with the big bear sculptures which will be decorated by chosen artists. After the trail each Little Bear will be returned to the school, nursery or college as a permanent memento of the project.