Two hundred pupils aged eleven to thirteen have just finished taking part in the College’s annual St Bede’s Reads, a sponsored “Readathon” for charity.
This year the event raised a staggering £2,556, breaking through the £12,000 barrier for the amount raised since 2001.
This year the College has again decided to use the money to support for the School under the Tree in Awassa in Ethiopa. This African school started under the shade of a tree. Fostered by the College for some years, it now has its own building, teaching materials and provides a daily meal for each child.
Two hundred pupils read uncounted books, probably upwards of 1,500. Whether the pages of all the books read since the project began would stretch from St Bede’s to Awassa is unlikely, but happily the help does!
Michael Berry, the organiser, said, “St Bede’s Reads provides a service not only to the pupils under the tree, but also to the College’s young readers. To all these children, in Ethiopia and England, the benefit far exceeds the monetary total. Even so, many thanks are due to our pupils, their parents, friends and relations. as well as the College’s pastoral and English teachers, whose support, interest and generosity helps the development both of the readers and of the pupils under the tree”.
First year student, Orla Dunne, said, “I enjoyed reading a whole variety of books and knowing that the money that we raised was going to a good cause.”
St Bede's College
Telephone: 44 (0)161 226 3323
