Friendship, Togetherness and Charity

December 2024

As the famous quote says ‘Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts’ and at Kew Green Prep our parents have their hearts open all year round.

‘The Friends of Kew Green Preparatory School’ (Friends) is a registered charity and all parents automatically become members upon joining the school community. Our Charity Lead, Sinem Erenturk, whose twin boys are now in Year 4, explains why she decided to take on the charity role in particular.  Her desire to help those less fortunate stems from her own family. Her parents contributed to the education fees of young people on low-incomes and she came across an old book where they kept details on where those young people eventually ended up. With charity and care for others less fortunate literally beginning at home, Sinem is on a personal mission with her own children as well as the school community at Kew Green Prep.

“We must instil awareness of making a positive change within the community at a very young age so that it is embedded in them whilst they’re figuring out their lives”

Sinem’s role involves communication with our chosen charity, West London Action for Children (WLAC), overseeing fundraising events, developing events with the charity which involve both parents and children in order to raise awareness of the fabulous work that WLAC does. Her aim is to create a synergetic environment between all parties resulting in great outcomes for the charity and our school community.

WLAC was chosen as the main school charity for the academic year 2024-2025 and Friends also supports Noah’s Pink Balloon Leukaemia Fund and during this year’s Harvest Festival it collected donations for the local food bank.

WLAC is a small, local and independent charity. They offer free, time-unlimited and professional counselling and therapy services to children, young people and families on low incomes. They are a very structured charity and have an experienced team of therapists to help families, especially whose children are struggling at school to help them recognise their strengths, build confidence, resilience and carry on with their school lives. They bring long term change, enabling children and young people to fulfil their potential. Last year WLAC worked with over 520 families.

The calendar of fundraising events changes slightly each year, there is a standard set of events but there are ad-hoc events with the chosen charity.

For this academic year, Friends has organised the following:

• Harvest Festival where food boxes for our local food bank were donated and this year the team running the Festival, led by our parents Nadia and Ruth, also ran a “best dressed autumnal box competition” and there were so many impressive entries!
• Christmas Hampers time is coming up where presents are collected for WLAC’s Christmas Drive. This year, some of our volunteer parents will also assist the charity’s distribution of hampers to the families themselves. We thank them for their generosity both financially and also of their time.
• Quiz Night in the Spring term is a fun parent gathering where parents compete and collaborate. This year there will be a change in format. The parent co-ordindators, Angela, Amit and Milly, are already all over the organisation of a brilliant evening for all!
• The month of June brings to life our big Summer Fair in collaboration with the School and will be an event for all the family.
• Regular second hand uniform sales take place where parents can find good quality uniform for their growing children with all proceeds going to our chosen charity. A huge thank you to Jill, who has run the sales so successfully, and thank you to Felicity for taking over the role.
• Lastly, there are delicious bake sales every Thursday with a wide variety of goods on offer.

As well as these events, other events are organised to bond with the chosen charity. Last year, WLAC gave a brilliant presentation to parents at the beginning of Quiz Night and they have also spoken to pupils at various school assemblies. Most recently, WLAC ran a workshop for Year 4 pupils entitled the ‘Virtual Walk’. They took the children on a virtual walk from Harrods in Knightsbridge to the Grenfell Tower area (all in the same borough of Kensington & Chelsea) where they discussed the difference in prices, living condition and explained how what they do as a charity is working towards creating a change.

These events are eye-opening for our children and this helps them understand what their role is in helping to bring about change in their communities. Achieving great grades, going to a top university and becoming successful in life is only one aspect of who we want our children to be, the real success is when they help others less fortunate than themselves and become drivers for change.

Pupil involvement in helping our chosen charities is intrinsic in the life of Kew Green Prep pupils. Brining in money or donating presents is only a small part of what they do, educating themselves by physically getting involved in the collection of Christmas presents, participating in the Virtual Walk Workshop and understanding more clearly what they are fundraising for and the difference it makes is a vital part of their education.

Families across all year groups are involved in many aspects of fundraising, whether it be organising and setting up events, donating, helping distribute gifts or supporting events as attendees, the school community is close-knit and is keen to improve upon last year’s fundraising efforts. The ambition is to raise more than last year’s £14,600 for WLAC, of which £10,000 will be doubled up in the Christmas Match Funds!

Thank you to everyone in the KGPS community who work tirelessly to support those less fortunate. Kew Green Prep has been described as a ‘second home’ by many of our pupils and the kindness and care for the well-being of others, which begins at home, is deeply embedded within the school community. In the case of Sinem, her parents certainly set a great example and one which she is continuing for her children.