Charity & Community
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Central to our mission as a school is the development of compassionate and community-minded young women.
Our vision is for every student to be involved in Outreach activities in every year of their time at FHS.
Our aim is to cultivate a lifelong appreciation of the transformative impact of charitable fundraising, volunteering, and community action in every student.
FHS has a venerable record of supporting a great number of charitable organisations, and benefits hugely from deep, mutually supportive, and longstanding relationships with a series of key charitable partners. Our fundraising model, detailed below, places both sustainability and impact at the forefront of our charity fundraising strategy.
At FHS we are proud to be a partner with our charities over a longer time-frame, which provides stability and security for our charitable partners. This also means we can leverage our fundraising activities and relationships to provide opportunities for pupils volunteering, unique educational visits, and other collaborative projects, as well as gain further useful insight into the needs of the charities and their service users.
Charity Fundraising is used to support the wider educational activities of the school, whether that be supporting the development of self-esteem and empathy; supporting mental health and with feelings of belonging; fostering a sense of community and global citizenship; or offering opportunities to exhibit key skills such as the seven Cs (creativity, collaboration, communication, confidence, curiosity, commitment and craftsmanship) in real world contexts.
And, of course, at FHS we believe that we can’t spell fundraising without FUN. All charity fundraising activities are planned in order to nurture a positive lifelong relationship with charitable giving for our pupils.
Find out more in our Public & Community Benefit Report:
Outreach Programmes
Charity fundraising is a big part of school life at Francis Holland. From Bake Sales to Comedy Nights, girls are encouraged to share their time, talent, and treasure to raise money for a huge range of important causes, both locally and internationally. As well as longstanding commitments to local charities In-Deep and The Katherine Low Settlement, and the ongoing sponsorship of four students at Mvumi School in Tanzania, girls regularly organise and lead fundraising and awareness campaigns in response to international crises as well as other issues closer to home. In recent years FHS has partnered with The Hammersmith & Fulham Foodbank to organise monthly collections of foodstuffs and hygiene products in the playground. FHS (and FHS Prep) are the single biggest non-supermarket donators to the foodbank, supplying over 5% of their foodstuffs since September 2024.
At FHS, our model is to create sustainable relationships of trust and support with our chosen charities over a number of years. This has a range of benefits. For the charities, the security of a reliable fundraiser and source of volunteers is hugely welcome. For the school, we are often trusted to take part in, provide, or propose a range of bespoke activities, gaining access, experience, and provision for our pupils that is not available to many schools. FHS Girls have opportunities to develop an active understanding of the important role that charities play in wider society. Every member of our LVI volunteers regularly, whether at the Love to Learn Homework Club at The Katherine Low Settlement, Music Therapy at In-Deep, Intergenerational activities at Eden Court Retirement Village, or supporting the co-curricular programmes at St Barnabas C of E Primary School and St Matthews Primary School. Additionally, the school runs a regular series of trips throughout the year for Outreach activities, including visits to Hammersmith and Fulham Foodbank Warehouse to take part in a ‘donation sort’, and several befriending visits to The Katherine Low Settlement as part of our Christmas Present Wrapping and Easter Eggs for Elders projects.
In 2023/24, we logged 592 distinct incidents of pupil Outreach over the course of the school year – one for every student on the school roll.
Francis Holland Prep (formerly Francis Holland Junior School) also plays a key role in our charitable endeavours with plenty of events, including the Junior School Charity Dog Show, in the School Calendar. Find out more here.
All charity events are student-led and seek to foster creativity, enterprise, independence and collaboration. Girls are conscious of their duty to show compassion and kindness to those in need of support.
The following funds were raised for the following charities via student fundraising:
Recent Charity and Outreach News:
Autumn Term Outreach Summary
A Trip to the Hammersmith and Fulham Foodbank Warehouse
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