Charities

Helping people by charity is the most human thing we can do. – Oprah Winfrey  

At Dover Grammar School for Girls, compassion is one of the central values driving our community’s charity work. Students and staff are committed to raising funds for various causes connected to our local and global communities. This has allowed students to learn and empathise with multiple charities and their aims.

Our Christmas Market, an annual event, was adapted in 2020-2021 to become a festive raffle. Through donations of prizes from local businesses, parents and staff, we were able to create a variety of hampers. This fundraising endeavour made £2,165 for Asthma UK. In 2021-2022, we continued to run a festive raffle for the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation, which saw us raise £1,319.89. From 2022 to 2023, the community had chosen to support the Alzheimer Society as an Alumni was running the London Marathon. We were pleased that despite economic restrictions in our community, we raised £780.79. This year, in 2023-2024, our raffle chose to support the Riverside Center in Dover. The centre supports the residents of Dover who are elderly or experiencing other difficulties. The response we received from parents, students and staff for this year’s raffle was fantastic, with many great prizes and excellent raffle ticket sales. As a result, we raised £664.31 for our chosen charity this year.

In addition to our Festive raffles, we support charities through non-uniform days and other events. So far in 2022-2023, we have been able to raise much-needed funds the following charities:

1. MacMillian Cancer Support - £1,026.18

2. YoungMinds - £478.33

3. Save The Children - £542.97

4. FairTrade Foundation - £483.01

5. Hope for Tomorrow – £629.47

6. Disaster Emergency Committee to support their work in Turkey and Ukraine - £1,359.50

7. Dover SmART project - £896.42

We supported many other causes and projects to help promote respect and empathy for others’ experiences in our global world. In 2022-2023, we raised a total of £7,085.45. This is an impressive amount, and this would not have been possible without the support of students, parents, and staff. In 2023-2024, we would like to work on raising more money through a variety of events and TAG days to help support our local community further.

This year, we have chosen the following charities to support through our non-uniform days.

1. 20th October – Young Minds / #HelloYellow

2. 8th December – Save the Children

3. 2nd February – FairTrade

4. 15th March – Hope for Tomorrow

5. 17th May – Stephen Lawrence Foundation

6. 5th July – Hope Not Hate

Our school community also raises awareness by donating materials or products to various charities. The 6th form prefect team traditionally runs the Harvest Festival, with donations

being made to the Trussel Trust food banks. As a result of the growing demand for foodbanks, the 6th form team decided to collect more materials for the Trussel Trust through form activities this year. Form groups designed boxes of products and festive materials to be donated to our local Trussel Trust foodbank. Moreover, we have an established Fairtrade event each year with students creating and running activities that raise awareness of the issues associated with sustainable and ethically produced food.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of our community sprang to help support the front-line workers by making PPE. Our teachers and students helped to produce face shields and donated safety glasses. We are tremendously proud of it, as even in the face of adversity, our community showed compassion and courage in helping those in our local community.