Small school with the BIG heart

PUPILS CHEQUE. Pictured with a cheque for £183.66 which was presented by pupils at William Pinkerton PS on Monday are Maureen Elliott and Valerie Hamilton (Sec) from Ballymoney RNIB Branch.INBM14-15 038SC.

For the school community at the Dervock school has raised a staggering amount of money over the school year for a range of charities.

On Thursday morning, representatives from both Leukaemia and Lymphoma NI and the Causeway Down’s Syndrome Support Group were at William Pinkerton PS to receive cheques from the school.

The school has raised £1,827.22 for Macmillan Cancer Support; £669-15 for the SMILES Foundation; £183.66 for RNIB by organising a school post office for Christmas cards; £100.20 for Leukaemia and Lymphoma NI and a further £100 for Causeway Down’s Syndrome Support Group - all in just one school year!

Wm. Pinkerton Memorial P.S. who donated clothes, toiletries, cleaning products etc to The Smiles Foundation Wish List. Included in the photo with the children are Barbara Morrison, from The Smiles Foundation, and Jacqui Galbraith. inbm23-15 s

Teacher Jacqui Galbraith told the Times: “The school community all made suggestions as to what charities they would like to support during the year.

“For example, we support the SMILES Foundation all year round with our 20p Tuesday scheme where each child brings in 20p each Tuesday and then we collect them all at the end of the year.

“Barbara Morrison from the charity comes into the school each month to speak to the children about how their money is being used. The children also recently collected clothes, toiletries and other goods to send out in a container to Romania.”

And in July Miss Galbraith and another teacher Mrs Honor Crowe are travelling to Romania to see how the Dervock fundraising money is being spent.

And the local community link is very important to William Pinkerton. All pupils were asked to suggest charities to help and to give their reasons why.

One child suggested BARK as that was where they acquired their dog, Snoopy and another suggested the Causeway Down’s Syndrome Group as their cousin has Down’s.

“The school wants to be a part of the community in Dervock,” said Miss Galbraith. “We can’t sit here like an island and although we are a small school, we can really help. Some people might say - well it’s only £100 - but £100 can make a huge difference to a small charity.

“When we rang the Causeway Down’s Syndrome group to ask them to come to accept a cheque, they were just delighted that we had even thought of them.

“And the charity fundraising is just part of the generosity of our pupils and parents. We have also had a Daffodil Tea, a Hallowe’en Games Night and a raffle organised by a parent Mrs Flack which have all raised hundreds of pounds for school funds.

“it’s a fantastic effort for such as a small school.”