Dear Parents/Carers,

This academic year Darwin House Council voted to continue to support Acorns Children’s Hospice as our House charity. Last year we managed to raise over £1,200 for our charity and we would like to contribute further this year.

For those of you who don’t know, Acorns is a local charity which supports children from 0-18 years of age that may have life-threatening or life-limiting illnesses. It’s a place for children to either live temporarily or permanently with their families. The hospice contains equipment that is beneficial to those with life-limiting illnesses, including large baths that support the children, water beds that can be heated, family rooms and games’ rooms for older residents. All this, for the three hospices costs £10 million a year to run, but only thirty percent of this is funded. The rest relies upon donations from the community.

The idea behind the hospices are that they are like a ‘home from home’. The hospices are designed so that the families can decorate their rooms as they wish, just like at home. They can bring in things from home, like bed sheets so that it feels homely. The rooms are decorated as different age groups may wish and the children are allowed to choose which room they have.

As a House we think that the hospice is incredibly important as they provide fun activities and try to achieve any wishes that the children and their families want. The children aren’t always able to live lives like your children do and this is why it is so important for us to raise money for those children and their families who use the Acorns Hospice. The Acorns Hospice aims to raise money for the children’s equipment, healthcare and enjoyment, as well as to provide important support for their families and siblings. They do this through so many activities, both locally and nationally, and organise sponsored events, cake sales and dressing up days. You can find more information about what the Acorns Children’s Hospice does by going to their website – https://www.acorns.org.uk/.

This week is Darwin’s House Focus week and we are organising many activities throughout this week in order to raise awareness of the charity and as much money as possible. We have organised the following things and we would very much appreciate your support:

  • Individual form competitions such as: Guess the name of the Bunny, how many sweets in the jar competition, a Jaffa Cake eating competition
  • A showing of ‘The Greatest Showman’ after school
  • Easter Egg raffle (any donations of Easter Eggs would be gratefully received)
  • Decorate an Egg competition
  • We have added an option on Parent Pay for you to make a donation towards the charity if you wish.
  • A cake sale at Year 12 Parents’ Evening on Thursday
  • Finally, we are asking for any donations of Arts and Crafts materials. We will then organise these to be taken to the Walsall Hospice.

All of this will help us to raise money for our charity and help us to work together as a community. Thank you all for reading our letter, and we hope you will support us in our donations.

Yours faithfully,

Mia Lowe

Darwin House Charity Captain