Charity and Community Activities
Pupils and staff at Sheffield Girls' devote much time and energy to ensuring that the School plays its part in supporting both the local and wider communities.
Charity Fundraising
Fund-raising for charitable causes is part of everyday life at the School, and girls and staff regularly raise in excess of £25,000 each year through a huge range of activities. The money raised goes to help local, national and overseas charities, such as the Sheffield Children’s Hospital, the Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice, Children in Need and Toybox in Latin America.
The charities which the School supports are chosen each year by the girls in School and include:
- South Yorkshire Eating Disorders
- Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice for young people
- South Yorkshire Eating Disorders Association
- Peter’s Commute - supporting pupils in Zimbabwe
- Oxfam in Kenya
- Royal National Institute for the Blind
- Children in Need
- Breast Cancer Research
- St Luke’s Hospice
- SMILE
- Sheffield Children’s Hospital
- Alzheimers’ Society
- World Aids Day
- The annual Poppy Appeal
- and support for many small local charities
Many girls at the School also make an additional individual commitment to helping those less fortunate than themselves by volunteering within the local community, whether as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award commitment or just in order to enrich their own lives or those of others. All our Year 12 girls undertake a minimum of 20 hours volunteering either in school or in the local community.
Special Initiatives
The School is involved in a number of special programmes to support the local community:
SHINE
SHINE is a leading educational charity with a focus on social mobility through education. SHINE's mission is to support additional educational initiatives which encourage children and young people to raise their achievement levels.
The SHINE programme at Sheffield Girls' involve Year 5 pupils from primary schools all over Sheffield taking part in “Serious Fun on Saturdays” at the School. This is an 11-week series of Saturday morning lessons, which sees the pupils experience 18 school subjects in a different light. The lessons are led by teachers from Sheffield Girls' supported by Sixth Form pupils who act as mentors for the younger children.
Cool to be Clever
The School's latest initiative is 'Cool to be Clever' which is run in association with the University of Sheffield.
The focus of the project is the identification and early intervention to support and mentor some of the brightest but most disadvantaged Year 4 children in 14 primary schools in Sheffield to enable them to maximise their potential. Exposing these pupils and their parents to opportunities which challenge their aspirations and ambition, and help them see that through education they have real choices in life.
The children selected to take part in the Cool to be Clever programme will meet together termly for events at the University of Sheffield, covering topics such as science, entrepreneurship, law, social sciences, architecture. Outside of the university sessions, mentoring support for the children will be provided by Year 11 students from Sheffield Girls', focussing on confidence building.
