Wearing wellies and digging deep, students at St Gregory’s College and the South Clifton Catholic Federation (SCCF) put their best foot forward last Friday to raise money to support needy families across the world through charity, CAFOD UK.

On Friday 14 March, St Gregory’s and all of their partner primary schools in the SCCF held a joint mufti day to raise funds to support the excellent work of CAFOD. The nine schools together raised nearly £3,000 through a variety of activities and pre-arranged events including planting seeds to sell plants at Spring Fairs, decorating flower pots and even a welly-throwing competition.
The eight primary schools were St John’s and St Mary’s in Bath, St Patrick’s in Corsham, St Mary’s in Chippenham, Our Lady of Lourdes in Kingswood, St Paul’s in Yate, St Benedict’s in Midsomer Norton and Sts Joseph and Teresa in Wells.

Throughout the day, the children were learning about the difficulties and poverty facing families across the world and how their efforts at school can make a difference to the lives of so many.
To record the mammoth efforts of all the schools, a camera crew set out from St Gregory’s to visit each school in turn during the day, covering over 100 miles.

Head of International Links, Andrew Jackson, and Performing Arts Technician, Josh Jackson, led the mad dash around all of the schools to film their taking part, accompanied by a film crew of students from St Gregory’s. Each school had just 15 minutes to showcase their school, before Andrew, Josh, students and film crew had to hit the road to the next school. Starting at St Gregory’s in the morning, they travelled to Kingswood, Yate, Midsomer Norton, Wells, Corsham and Chippenham, before making it back to Bath for the end of the school day. They completed their challenge with just three minutes to spare.

Henry, one of the St Gregory’s presenters said:

“We saw wellies being used in all sorts of ways from ‘welly-wanging’ to strawberry planters – it was great fun and for such an amazing cause.”

Executive Headteacher, Mr Raymond Friel, commented:
“Our thanks and congratulations go to all the students and staff, from all of the schools, who put such a lot of work into the fundraising effort.”

More information on the inspiring work of CAFOD can be found on their website at www.cafod.org.uk.