Headteachers' praise for generous young fundraisers

The headteacher of a school raising funds to replace a stolen minibus has praised two young people for helping.

Jessica Brown and her friend, Evan, handed £946 to The Willows School in Thurcroft after fundraising for the bus and an Australia trip.

Thieves broke into a secure area at The Willows School – a special education place of learning – on Locksley Drive in June.

The school needs to find £22,000 to replace the minibus.

Jessica contacted The Willows headteacher Mrs Rachael Booth to say that she and Evan wanted to help.

She told Mrs Booth: “A couple of months ago I came to your school on work experience and during my amazing time there one of your school buses went missing.

“I saw personally the effect of this on the school and I wanted to help.

“Next year me and my friend Evan have been given an amazing opportunity to go to Australia so we set ourselves a goal to raise money for both our Australia funds and to help you with your funds for a new school bus.

“We said that all the money we raise would be split equally, half going towards the school bus and half going towards our Australia trip.

“Over the summer, we have raised money by doing a 15-mile walk which started at Malaysia (restaurant in Sheffield) to Melbourne Avenue to Sydney Road and finally ending at The Willows.

“We did this walk in four hours 35 minutes, raising money through family and friends.

“We then raised money by doing a car boot sale with the help of donations from family and friends.

“After all of the fundraising, we have the split the amount and we are happy to say that we have raised a total of £946 for your school bus funds.”

Mrs Booth said that she was grateful for the efforts of Jessica and Evan.

She said: “They raised £2,000 and gave us almost £1,000.

“I thought that it was such generosity.

“There are kind people out there and these young people just wanted to do that for us.”