FANTASTIC NEWS - FUNDRAISING

It has been confirmed, today, albeit verbally, that Tesco's Stalham will allow the field trip participants to carry out fundraising in the store on SATURDAY 13th DECEMBER 2008 between the 09:00 hrs and 17:00 hrs.

The idea is that the students offer to pack customer purchases and hopefully a donation is given to the student in return for the service..................... well, that's the theory anyway.

This will provide some much needed income for the trip.

All we now need is for all 30 students to volunteer to help with the bagging in 3 shifts of approx 3 hours duration. REMEMBER.............. those that don't participate, don't benefit!

We are most grateful to the store for their support and especially to the store manager Mr. T. Bunting..................... and believe me when I say.................. Every Little WILL Help!

Today....................2 MEETINGS and....................2 TRIPS

Today there were two meeting held at school.

The first was to see if there was continuing support from the Year 11's for a trip to Kenya in July. Although the numbers who originally showed interest had dropped there is still sufficient enthusiasm for a trip to go ahead.

It is proposed that this trip will depart on 18th July or thereabouts, subject to availability of flights, follow the same itinerary, as detailed below, subject to a bit of tweaking, and cost £1,499 per person exclusive of jabs and spending money. 

If there are any more students, in addition to the 9 who have signed up, who are interested, please see Mr. H.

The second meeting was held for those participants of the May/June Field Trip. It was somewhat disappointing that NOT all students attended although some had not been informed of the meeting!

The agenda was as follows:-

1 Attendance at meetings.

2 Payments and receipts

3 T-Shirt design.

4 E-mail addresses.

5 Fundraising - Tesco packing.

Meetings have been poorly attended and it was stressed that attendance was imperative as these meetings were arranged to pass on vital information.

Payments need to be up to date and receipts for payments made could be collected from Mr.H.

Students were reminded to submit designs for the front of the T-shirts to be sponsored by Meteor Parking. These should be submitted ASAP otherwise we will utilise the services of the school's Art teacher.

E-mail addresses are needed in order to convey urgent information to parents both prior to and during the field trip. However, after numerous requests, less than half the students have provided a valid E-mail address. These need to be in before Christmas.

It is proposed to ask the local Tesco Store to allow us to fundraise within the store on Saturday 13th December. The fundraising will be by means of a packing service provided for Tesco customers. As such, volunteers are needed for that day. The students were reminded that unless they participated in the fundraising events, they wouldn't benefit from the proceeds.

The issue of inoculations/immunizations was also raised and it cannot be overly stressed about the importance of getting these done at the earliest opportunity in order for them to be fully effective during the trip.

Watch this space for more details.

Provisional booking will be made on Monday 8th December.

Fundraising & Donations - UPDATE

Fundraising & Donations to the cause currently stand at over £1,600.

The sum includes the following:

Meteor Parking, Stanstead Airport £1000 plus T-shirts

An anonymous donation of  £200

Stalham Shopper, Stalham £300+ with a target of £900 

from their Christmas Raffle

Stalham High School Cake Sale £35+

In additon, both The Swan Inn and Lords Opticians in Stalham are continuing to promote our fundraising efforts by means of collection boxes strategically positioned in their businesses.

We, at Stalham High School, are most grateful for all their continuing support.

PERMISSION

We have finally been given permission to book the Field Trip.

UKConnection will formally be asked to book the trip on Monday 8th December 2009. As such, if there are any students wishing to participate in this adventure, please be sure to notify Mr. H by that date.

There are up to 10 places still available!

More on Inoculations/Imunisations

Further to a recent post on inoculations/immunizations the following site was recently sent to me by a parent.

NHS - Fit for Travel

As advised, if you haven't already done so, get advice from your GP or a Travel Clinic at your earliest convenience to ensure protection during the Field Trip.

WORLD AIDS DAY

Today is WORLD AIDS DAY.

The estimated number of people in Kenya in 2006 suffering from HIV was somewhere between 4 and 6 percent of the population of 36 million people. Some estimates are higher. In real terms this equates to more than 1 in 24 of the population.

If this isn't enough, the infant mortality rate in Kenya in 2006, for children under the age of 5, was 121 per 1,000. This is to say that under the age of 5, children in Kenya had less than a 90% chance of survival!

Statistics from UNICEF.

We have so much for which to be grateful.

Travelling to Marich via Wilson Airport.

If you fancy visiting this beautiful area yourself, under your own steam, without the restricitons of an itinerary then the usual travel guides (Lonely Planet, Rough Guide etc.) are a great help.

If you don't fancy traveling from Nairobi to Marich by road then flights are available from Wilson Airport in Nairobi. You can fly for just over £100, return to Kitale, with Aero Kenya. It is a short flight and once in Kitale you can, from there, organise the last stretch of your journey to Marich.

As I was looking for links for Wilson Airport I got a link to Daphne Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. This is better known as the Elephant Orphanage and the focus of the BBC documentary series entitles Elephant Diaries presented by Jonathan Scott and Michaela Strachan. It is to this little airport, on the northern edge of the Nairobi National Park and South West of the city of Nairobi, that many of the elephant orphans are flown to offer them a chance of survival.