Applications for 11+ exams Trinity School, Royal Russell School, Croydon High Senior School GDST, Woldingham School, Old Palace of John Whitgift School and Whitgift School, South Croydon now closed. 18 of our 2019 Tuition Group sitting a total of 54 exams. Good luck to you all. Bursary forms submitted. Here’s to ever-increasing #socialmobility!

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During half term our Art Masterclass at Fairchildes Primary School had a trip to London art galleries to do some sketching, look at what the professionals do and have some fun. Thanks Miss Aves for organising and tutoring and to the parents for taking the time to accompany your children.

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So it’s finally done.  ’50 Friends’ campaign has gone out by email (only those where we have GDPR consent of course) and social media (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn).  Here’s the flyer again for your info.  If you want to join the campaign, please go to our donation page.  THANK YOU!!!!

And it’s not just us saying thank you…

Dayna Franklin is already part of our Tuition Programme and we’ve been aware for some time that academia is just one of her many talents.  So chatting with mum last week, we agreed that it would be very welcome to the family if we could support some of her many activities.

So we’re pleased to announce that the Foundation is now supporting Dayna’s violin lessons and membership of the Chamber Choir at Croydon Music & Arts.   Only three years after picking up a violin for the first time, she is already working towards her Grade 4 which is pretty remarkable.  We are hoping that this plus her singing and her other exploits will help her win scholarships when applying to the independent schools come 11+ time.

Good luck Dayna: you’re an all round star that will surely go far!

A third gymnast has joined our elite little group at Allstarz in New Addington.  So welcome Lexy Moores.

Lexy is only just starting in Year 3 so is one of our younger stars and I am sure she will go far.

Her very proud mum has said a massive thank you to the Foundation for supporting Lexy, so we will pass on this thank you to all of our very generous donors.  We couldn’t do it without you!!

We are today launching a new fundraising campaign.  We desperately need your support if we are to support more and more children.

 

Just a quick news update to wish all of our young proteges a happy and successful new academic year.  We are blowing our trumpet but there are quite a few:

Christopher and Ubaydullaah starting Year 10 (yes, Year 10 already) at Trinity and Whitgift;

Alfie, David and Janice starting Year 9 at WCGS, Wilson’s and Old Palace;

Amelia, Asad, Bailee, Mohammad, Priscilla and Sabeeh starting Year 8 at Old Palace, Trinity, Trinity, WCGS, Royal Russell and Trinity;

Ellie, Megan, Nichola, Praveena, Safiya, Thabo and Vania starting Year 7 at Old Palace, Woldingham, Royal Russell, Old Palace, Trinity and Croydon High (especially good luck and congratulations to this group as they start their secondary school careers);

Christopher as he heads towards his Grade 6 piano exams;

Ciara on continuing to compete and move up the Irish Dancing podium;

Aliyah and Soraya as they dance their way to success;

Emma, Layla-Belle and Lexy rolling and tumbling to gymanstics glory;

Arianna and Aleena in their acting, singing and dancing;

All the talented artists (16 of them) in their Art Masterclasses at Rowdown and Fairchildes;

The Year 5 tuition group (20 of them) continuing their lessons at Royal Russell; and

The Year 6 tuition group (23 boys and girls) at Trinity: a huge good luck to them as they start their quest for grammar or independent schools places over the next few months.

I make that 85 children that we will be supporting for the next 12 months or more.

Blowing our trumpet is justified!!

Once again we’ve had a fantastic afternoon at Rowdown Primary School for their Annual Awards, the fifth organised by the Foundation and sponsored by Shard Capital.  The presentation format changed slightly this year with all nominated pupils collecting their certificate and a £10 book token from Gareth Burchell, a Rowdown old-boy and now a partner at Shard Capital.  He was ably assisted by Gary Coy, our Chair.

More details can be found on our dedictated page but here’s a few photos to whet your appetite including all the winners in each year group for each category (Achievement / Progress and Attitude / Effort) as well as the overall winners, Teagan Froud and Alex Vaman…

 

 

We held our second fundraising golf day today, organised by our good friend Gareth Burchell and held at the lovely The Addington Golf Club.   The sun came out and the rain stayed away.

We saw some good shots…

…and some not-so-good shots!

 

There were some professional looking teams…

 

 

 

 

and some motley looking bunches, but the winners were this lot…

Note the liquid refreshment placed next to the golf bag on the left.  The chosen fuel of winners is…Scrumpy Jack!!

Most importantly we have raised well over £2,000 for the Foundation, ALL, every single penny, of which will be spent on supporting children from New Addington’s low income families to pursue their talents.  Thank you to everyone’s generosity and for these lovely ladies for giving up their time to help.  The three on the left are mums of children who we have helped to achieve places at independent schools starting is September.  The other is Gareth’s wife, Sarah.  Thank you for you help.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s talk about those children that have already started their secondary education at some very prestigious schools in and around Croydon.  We ask for regular updates from parents on how these kids are getting on.  Our commitment to them means we want to make sure they are happy and making the most of the opportunities that we have helped to create for them.

We’re pleased to say that all eleven children are getting along just fine.  That’s a bit of an understatement as it is all going very well according to their latest school reports.  And I bet they all look as smart as Priscilla does here in her Royal Russell school uniform.  I’m pleased to say there are 11 sets of proud parents that we have helped to realise a dream of a really strong secondary education for their bright children.

Here’s a reminder who is where: