Teachers, staff and parents from Latchford St James CofE Primary School in Warrington will take on the Three Peaks challenge to raise money for educational visits.
A large proportion of the school’s budget is currently being used for educational visits however after a funding meeting headteacher Andy Hayes was faced with the prospect of dropping those trips all together, in order to save money.
He said: “Something in my heart was telling me that I couldn’t cut school visits, because those extracurricular experiences are so valuable for our children and give them such a rich experience.
“It’s all well and good learning about the Great Fire of London, but it’s only by going to the city and seeing where it happened and talking it through, that our students can really learn about the topic.”
After a discussion with the senior leadership team, staff decided they would take on the Three Peaks Challenge, with a target of raising £6,000 by climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in 24 hours.
If they hit their target, the school plans to use the cash to continue to subsidise educational visits or buy a minibus to save on future travel costs.
The group, made up of Andy and four other members of staff, as well as a number of parents, aim to begin their challenge on 28th May, starting at 5pm at Ben Nevis and ending it at 5pm the following day at Snowdon.
The group has already completed a training climb at Snowdon to prepare for the challenge, and Andy hopes that this will be a one-off mission to continue to help pupils prosper outside of the classroom.
“Trips allow our children to learn in real life and build confidence - there’s no alternative for that. We can’t let rising costs stop them from having that time to boost their resilience.”
Andy Hayes, headteacher at Latchford St James CofE Primary School
Andy said: “We obviously don’t want to keep doing challenges in order to get more money for educational visits, and in the future, we will look at alternatives for reducing costs, whether that be through school trips closer to home or by purchasing a minibus.”
The headteacher said that the school relies on their trips to bring the curriculum to light, and it also gives pupils from low-income households opportunities that they would never otherwise get.
Andy added: “We want to be really creative and find alternatives to make trips work as they allow our children to learn in real life and build confidence - there’s no alternative for that. We can’t let rising costs stop them from having that time to boost their resilience.”
