I will be running the 2020 Reading Half marathon (my 10th) in an inflatable dinosaur costume to raise vital funds for the New Futures project. The New Futures initiative unites six of our Maiden Erlegh Sixth Form students with twelve Year 12 students from Charters and Emmbrook schools in the challenge to take eighteen students from Addington School to Tirabad.

The aim is to have as much fun as possible participating in a range of outdoor adventure activities such as gully scrambling, archery, caving, and canoeing, for five days in June at the outdoor activity centre in Wales. This however, is not your everyday Tirabad trip as Addington School is a special needs school and the eighteen students that they take have a wide range of learning needs and associated sensory, motor and/or behaviour difficulties.

Many of these students require one to one support which would usually prohibit these students from taking part in such a trip, which for many will be their first experience of being away from home. The trip intends to help the Addington students to learn how to be more independent, such as, getting dressed by themselves, washing dishes, making their own bed, etc. The students also learn how to be more resilient during each days challenging physical activities, while receiving the necessary support from our sixth form students.

This trip’s huge educational value is sadly matched by its expense and so it is only possible to achieve this through charitable fundraising events. Our sixth formers are currently raising awareness of what New Futures is and are trying to raise funds by holding events in school and the local community.

Any support you can offer, would not only be appreciated - but could be life changing for the young people involved.