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We are pupils at St James School (a registered charity) in Olympia. We love going to this school because of its uniquely friendly and supportive atmosphere.

We have a wonderful opportunity to create a bespoke Sixth Form Centre and have decided to swim the Channel in a relay to help raise the necessary funds. This swim will be one of the greatest challenges most of us will ever have to face (gulp)! 

We are a diverse group of pupils of all abilities, cultures and religions, brought together by the spirit of unity throughout the School. We are introduced to the subject of philosophy at the earliest age together with mindfulness practices, for instance, a pause at the beginning and end of each lesson. This all helps to open the mind and to connect with our innate peace. We have wonderful, devoted teachers including Mrs Hyde who has been our head for 19 years. Former pupils are often complimented on their emotional intelligence, confidence in expressing their views, and readiness to face the world.    

Because the school is so popular we are bulging at the seams. We have however acquired an adjacent site which is ready to be developed into the new Sixth Form Centre. This state-of-the-art building will provide a bespoke space for the older girls at a crucial stage in their development while bringing much needed additional space and facilities to the rest of the school including the juniors with whom we share the site.

The new Sixth Form Centre will cost over £3m to develop and is hopefully to open in 2015. Approx. £1m has been raised so far. Here is a link to the school's website giving details of the project http://www.stjamesschools.co.uk/seniorgirls/why-st-james/facilities/sixth-form-centre/ 

Most of us had not done much swimming since the juniors but we have been training throughout the past winter in a pool. We are now spending more time in open water as the temperatures rise. The boat and pilot have been booked for the first week of August. 6-8 girls will eventually be selected for the swim and shall take it in turns to swim 1 hour until one of us touches French sand. The swim is expected to take around 15-18 hours and is likely to start or finish in the dark. Each girls shall be expected to swim a total of 2-3 hours.The Channel is a busy shipping lane though channel swimmers and their pilot boat have right of way. There may be the odd jellyfish. The sea can get a bit lumpy with large swells (though we shall not be allowed to swim if it gets too rough). We shall need to reach high levels of fitness and technical ability culminating in a 2 hour qualifying swim test at Dover in June at a temperature of no more than 16C/61F (a requirement of the Channel Swimming & Pilots Federation which regulates the sport http://cspf.co.uk). There are bound to be tears but if these can be expended for the most part during a thorough process of preparation, the day of the channel swim will be all the more enjoyable. It will be one of the greatest adventures that we can ever have combining personal endeavour and teamwork. Just in case we do not have at least 6 girls who are deemed ready for the swim, we have a parent, teacher and governor lined up and ready to make up the numbers if necessary. 

Donations would be greatly appreciated in order to encourage us to complete all the preparations in the coming months and get to France in August! 

Many thanks

Phoebe, Maia, Gemma, Tilly, Tilda, Sophie, Imogen, Saiorse, and Jessica

Follow us on Twitter at: George@StJGirlsSwim 

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