Local school Charity trip to India (From Your Local Guardian)

Local school Charity trip to India

7:14am Tuesday 7th February 2012 in Sutton

Overton Grange Prepares for an Indian Summer In these times of austerity it would seem to some an impossible task for a group of 25 6th Form students to raise in excess of £60,000 and to do so in less than a year.

However, this is exactly what a group of students from Overton Grange School in Sutton have decided to do and are well on their way to achieving their goal.

The fundraising is part of a scheme known as Project India which, each year, sends groups of students to rural India to help in educational, healthcare or building projects. The students from Overton Grange will be travelling to Tirunelveli in southern India for a period of three weeks during their summer holidays and hope to be able to take part in all three types of activity.

Emma Barraclough, one of the staff accompanying the students has described the trip as “not only an opportunity for the students to immerse themselves entirely in a different culture and develop an appreciation for their own lives here; it also enables them to enhance their chances of getting into university.”

Despite the increase in student fees, university places are still in short supply and students are facing increasingly stiff competition in order to secure places. Charlotte Treagus of Overton Grange states that she feels that as a school “We would be letting our students down if we were not to offer them these opportunities. It is something that will benefit them educationally and it is a scheme which will ultimately benefit society as a whole.”

The students are each responsible for raising the money needed for them to attend the trip and parents are encouraged not to bankroll their children so as a result students from a variety of different financial backgrounds are able to participate. Through their fundraising the students are learning important skills with regards to working together as well as independently. Some students are taking part in independent fund raising activities such as a sponsored cycle ride from one end of England to the other. Others are taking part in group activities such as quiz nights, blind football tournaments, bag packing in local supermarkets and indoor car boot sales and with local companies getting involved too this really is a community effort that the staff and students involved at Overton Grange are proud of.

The students and staff are giving up their time not only for three weeks of the summer holidays but also throughout the year in order to raise the money needed. At a time when the riots of last summer are still fresh in the minds of many the students of Overton Grange are showing that the youth of Sutton has an enormous amount to offer and they are willing to give it.

For more information you can contact the Project India team at overtoninda@suttonlea.org (sic).

Based on information supplied by Sebastian Purvis.