As part of our Year 8 Leavers' programme, we wanted to raise money for the School's chosen charity Lepra. Ignite speaker and Invictus Athlete Dr Jen Warren had talked about her intrepid swim across the Channel as part of the 'Arch to Arc Challenge' and, inspired by her, we decided to hold our own Channel swim in the School Pool on Saturday 9th June 2018. We are delighted to say that in under 24 hours of our Common Entrance exams finishing, we hit the water (split into two groups) and achieved our goal within an hour (the narrowest point of the Channel measures 33.3km which is the equivalent of 1,655 lengths of our 20 metre pool).

Parent Carlos Glencairn-Campbell kindly gave us a pre-swim briefing in the Hall with brilliant photographs of the hazards he came across when making his successful Channel bid. The Staff then made the pool 'real' with jelly fish, a lobster, star fish and lots of floating plastic bottles. Mr Stoop ensured we kept our energy levels up with bowls of Jelly Babies, Haribo and Jaffa Cakes and the Catering Staff fed and watered our parents and supporters with a delicious French Café and Ye Olde Winchester House Arms. Big thanks to Mr Jones for making it possible, Mrs Kennedy for designing and painting the signage, Aldo and his team for a fantastic spread, the early bird staff who swam 540 lengths on our behalf at 6.30am, the mathematicians who counted our lengths and everyone who came to support. The atmosphere was electric!

Please support us in our aim to raise as much money as possible for Lepra. Leprosy is completely curable but left untreated it causes life-changing disabilities including nerve damage, paralysis and blindness. Over 3 million people live with undiagnosed leprosy and a further 4 million have been disabled by leprosy with many requiring life-long support. Lepra finds, treats and provides support to people affected by leprosy. We have been bowled over by people's generosity so far but would like to hit our target of raising £2,000.  

Thank you.

The Year 8 Leavers