Youth Philanthropy Initiative

All Year 9 students participated through PSCHE in a competition to be awarded the top prize of £1,500 to go towards their selected charity.  In a pitch to judges, the competition tests students' oracy skills and persuasive arguments as well as focusing on their commitment to the proposed charity and both their knowledge and understanding of how the charity operates with questions to scrutinise how the money will be spent.  Five groups made it through to the final with a panel of The Mayor of Rossendale, the Chairman of the BRGS Finance Committee, the Headteacher, Head Boy and Head Girl as well as representatives from all the finalist charities watching, tensions were high for all groups involved.   

The Soup Kitchen was awarded the first prize of £1,500 with The Raft Foundation awarded £500.  

Ella Brierley from the winning team said:

"When we found out we won we were amazed.  We felt so proud to represent a charity that we had become very passionate about.  This experience opened our eyes to the many great charities in our local area and made us grateful for what we have while making us determined to win the valuable money.  We believe The Soup Kitchen deserved this chance and the things that this money can fund are unbelievable.  We would like to say a massive thanks to all those who made it possible, the funds will make a huge difference to many people's lives."

The team which won the second prize for The Raft Foundation said:

‘We learnt a lot from this experience. We enjoyed learning about the many different charities that other teams have represented, and many of us have decided to continue to help our individual charities. It allowed us to develop our communication skills, in particular, along with many other skills. We felt like we were helping out the community and felt extremely happy when we were announced as second place, as we knew that we had done a great thing in helping a great charity. It was very rewarding, not only for the charity but also for us.  The final competition was extremely competitive, and you could tell that everyone was driven to win. With so much at stake, and all of the charity’ representatives eagerly watching, we were under pressure to win. After all of the groups had been we were sat on the edge of our seats as we were waiting for the results. We were delighted to come second winning the fantastic sum of £500 for The Raft Foundation.’

Judge and BRGS Governor Peter Terry commented:  

“The standard of the presentations was very high and the judges were impressed with the quality of the research carried out by the teams and their understanding of the issues dealt with by the charities. Deciding the winner team is always difficult and this year was no exception. We hope that by taking part in the competition all the students will be encouraged to volunteer, either for their chosen charity or any for another charitable organisation.”