Last week marked a busy end to an already busy term at Shrewsbury School. Another successful term, marked by many individual and collective achievements was capped by a host of events last week and the inevitable relief of an arduous, albeit successful term.
Last Thursday marked the second termly field day of the year. The school mobilised into a workforce of more than 190 volunteers, working in arenas such as charity shops, care homes and local schools. As someone who works at a charity shop as a part of these school-run initiatives I can say our work is appreciated and significant.
Many were also able to enjoy an enlightening lecture in the morning given by Pete McCleave from 10,000 donors, in which he spoke of his traumatic ordeal with cancer and how stem-cell transplants provides hope to many blighted with the illness, expressing his hope that, through people such as us, he wished to spread the word regarding stem cell donations in the hope of having 10% of our population registered in 10 years-time.
It was also a successful week for sport at Shrewsbury. The boys first XI football team won in a convincing 8-0 performance. This built on the success of the first team basketball team the day prior, who won the U19 Shrewsbury County Cup last Wednesday. I spoke to a member of the team who revealed they were always confident and ‘have faith in themselves’ but still described it as ‘a memorable day’ for him’, thanking his teammates and his coach for the support.
Turning more far-afield last week was also a period of excitement for those preparing for their upcoming trip to Kenya. Shrewsbury, last weekend, waved goodbye to a group of students who were venturing to the largest continent in the world in an effort to aid Restart Africa in their continued efforts to provide a secure environment for children. One individual I spoke to said they saw the trip as an ‘exciting’ opportunity. This is yet another example of the school’s continued charitable endeavours which have, thus far, garnered endowments of £130,000 this year.
