THE GIFT OF HELPING OTHERS
Ivy House wholeheartedly embraced Operation Christmas Child this year.
The girls brought back some wonderful items after half term and we all rummaged in our homes for suitably exciting things to include.
Mrs Reynolds is one of our duty staff on Thursday evenings. She had an amazing bag of tricks when she arrived on boarding duty last Thursday, wrapping paper, shoe boxes, scissors, tape and bundles of energy! She had even raided Great Granny’s Jewellery Box.
With the help of Tia, Iksha and Tina all the girls were deployed around the house wrapping and filling boxes. Each box contained a cuddly toy, stationary, jewellery, soap, a toothbrush and various other lovely things. They really put a lot of thought into what was included. Jess pointed out that if we were giving pencils we needed to ensure we also included a sharpener, as it would be so frustrating for the child receiving the box not to be able to sharpen the pencils!
We had a discussion about how for many of the children receiving the box, it would be the first present they have ever received. The girls were very humbled by this and thought about how lucky they are in comparison. There was a real sense of achievement and understanding of how giving is just as much fun as receiving.
On Friday morning there was much hilarity as all the senior school girls gathered up their boxes to deliver to the Foundry. The highlight of my term so far was accompanying our 5 preppies and their boxes to the Foundry at break time. Prof Moriarty, Mrs Cook and Mrs Cheetham gave them a wonderful welcome and they loved the whole excitement of coming over to the senior school.
All in all a job well done and an enriching experience!
Sophie Saunders, Matron, Ivy House