Message From Principal, 10 Jan 2020

Dear Parents and caregivers,

The Island School walk-a-thon was held today with great success. This special event marks the first time a dedicated whole school event has been organised by students to raise awareness and funds for the school’s longstanding commitment to our three school charities:

Nicola and Kenneth Bursaries

The Nicola Myers Kenneth McBride Fund is in memory of two wonderful Island School students who tragically died over 30 years ago. Each year since then, with the support of their families, the Island School community has raised money to help financially challenged children. The bursary program seeks to distribute individual $3,000 to support the most disadvantaged students (as nominated by their Principal) stay engaged with education and the pursuit of higher education. The funds are typically used to buy the books and materials or support their living costs.

Baiwan Community School Charity

In 1998, an Island School teacher reached out to Sunbeam Children’s Foundation who were doing charity work in Baiwan. As a result of this connection, the first Baiwan Quest Week was organised, marking the birth of the Baiwan Charity. Island School raises funds, donates resources and teaches English to students from the school.

Katya House, Nepal

In 1997, a group of Island School students and teachers travelled to Nepal on a trekking expedition and were struck with the child poverty on the streets which was in contrast with the wild, natural beauty of Nepal. The group decided to do something about it, and worked with the Island School community and network to raise enough funds to found an orphanage and home for homeless children.

Twenty years later and the school remains a vital partner of Katja House, with students and staff returning annually to work with the children and undertake maintenance and building repairs.

Island School’s long term commitment to these charities has had a tremendous impact on our students as well as beneficiaries. As well as connecting them to their local community, it helps to ground them to develop their global awareness and understand the difference personal, self-motivated action can make.

I would like to make special mention of the students who made this walk-a-thon event possible today. Our head students rose to the challenge of mobilising the student body and the newly formed Student Union have been exceptional, taking the lead on organizational matters and the ambassadors also did a fabulous job keeping all participants on the right track and safe.

As with all of the best Island School events, the students were strongly supported by our events team, teachers and our PTA who provided all participants with hotdogs, veggie burgers and iced tea which all went down a treat.

The next step is to focus on getting the donations un to support the student’s efforts. All students have been provided with a sponsorship form and a link was sent home in an email this week.

I urge all parents to support the school’s commitment to our wonderful charities by donating and encouraging your child to connect to your family network to ensure the success of this wonderful initiative.