After the Big Build work the School Council decided last year that they would like to raise money to help children in a developing country so that they too could have a new toilet. We were incredibly inspired by a fantastic assembly from Linda representing WaterAid. She told us all about the importance of water, sanitation and hygiene.

Since then, and for the rest of this school year, we will be collecting small change to make a big difference for two projects. The children decided that they would count the pennies and change and then it will be split between the ‘Toilet Twining’ charity and raising funds to replace our old minibus. 

By donating £60 to twin our toilet, we can help those in desperate poverty to have access to a proper latrine, clean water and the information they need to be healthy.  For each £60 we raise, our smallest room becomes the proud owner of a certificate, complete with a colour photo of its twin and GPS coordinates so the children can look up our twin on Google Maps!

Children may bring in some money ANY day to add into the class collection jars but we will collect it and count it on Wednesdays each week. Please know that the concept is very much around children and families donating a little and certainly not about making big donations on a regular basis. In a world of credit cards and creeping inflation our children do not always understand the worth of pennies and small change and we all know that they can misinterpret plastic cards as an ‘everlasting’ source of funds! We hope that this project might help children to appreciate ‘watching the pennies’ more and empower them to develop lifelong habits towards helping others.  

Four weeks into the initiative and we can purchase our first 'twinned toilet' having raise £60.43 so far! Well done Bentley – can we match the seven we received through the Big Build for people living without any toilet at all over this school year? Please keep donating pennies and loose change every week if you want to help.