BEECH HANGER SUPPORT

Beech Hanger boarding pupils and their families have provided nearly 400 face masks since the Easter weekend which have already been delivered to the NHS. A further 2,000 are also on their way to Caterham, due to arrive at the school next week. This is a huge boost to our whole school community effort to support frontline health and care workers in our community in whatever way we can. 

200 of the masks have been given to the Westway community centre in Caterham which supports the social care services delivering food and mediation to the most vulnerable shielded patients in lockdown for 12 weeks. The masks will support the patients as well as the care givers who might not otherwise have received this protection. 

 A huge thank you to the global Caterham family – the support and response from pupils and parents in Surrey, in the UK and across the world has been wonderful.  Particular mention to the Chen, Cheng, Mak, Ho, Lee and Liu families for their amazing support! Thank you! 

PPE FOR CARE WORKERS

The support effort by the Caterham community is global with amazing support from our overseas pupils and Old Caterhamians.  Lucy G, with the help of friends and family, is spearheading a brilliant effort to provide significant PPE provision for care and health workers in Caterham and beyond. In addition to starting a fundraising campaign on Instagram, (with brilliant posters designed by fellow pupil Sophie T) Lucy is working hard arranging purchase and shipment of CE certified masks to Caterham.  Great work Lucy and team!

This support is in addition to the many boarding families who have already donated and sent masks and PPE via the School’s boarding houses. This latest batch of masks arrived just this week.

VISOR PRODUCTION UPDATE

The production of visors for the NHS continues at school. This week (April 24) some staff have brought their partners, children and even Old Cats with them to share a table and support the effort (all within distancing guidelines).  Just under 400 visors have been finished this week on top of 200 last Friday.  This means we will have made a total of 900 visors. A tremendous result from a hard-working team of volunteers. Thank you! 

AMAZING £7K RAISED FOR SASH

The English Department’s Saturday night quiz, which began as school community fun during lockdown has raised almost £7,000 for SASH, the charity for East Surrey Hospital and the care and services provided by Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust for people across Surrey and Sussex.  

Mr Nick Crombie, set the wheels in motion at the start of lock down and the event has proved so popular that he has kept it going with last Saturday’s quiz, the fifth so far, raising the brilliant sum for the NHS and gaining a global audience. 

Mr Crombie said: “’The quiz started five weeks ago as an opportunity to get our community in one place on a Saturday night, aiming to bring their ‘big night out, back in’. We have grown over this time and now see upwards of 200 teams compete every week, some tuning in from Oman, New Zealand, Sweden, America, Hong Kong and the Netherlands.  

“Last Saturday (18 April) we decided to make it a ‘Dress for the NHS’ quiz – encouraging families to put on a costume, or to dress fancily, whilst making a donation to SASH Charity, our local NHS Trust. So far we’ve raided over £6658 and it’s still rising. We are so proud to give this money to such an amazing cause at a hugely challenging time. The quiz continues every Saturday and you can tune in to our nightly story time at 9pm on our Caterham English Instagram page.’ 

The initial target set by Mr Crombie was £500 but this amount was passed before the quiz even began.  The school had emails and calls from former pupils across the world who were keen to join the community effort and donate for the cause.” 

Added Mr Crombie: “the amount raised has been brilliant but It doesn’t surprise me in a way – the sense of community pulling together has been awesome and this is just one of the ways our community has got involved to help others.”