At Cokethorpe, we offer a unique scheme to recognise students who demonstrate leadership through their contributions to all aspects of School life, and who promote our core values by acting with integrity, courage, empathy, judgement, ambition and responsibility. These are what we call our Leadership Traits and are integral to the Leadership Programme. By awarding Leadership Grants, we celebrate and develop the qualities to inspire others.
Each year, five grants are awarded. Successful recipients of this prestigious grant receive a £750 contribution towards their first year university fees (or equivalent), and a further £250 budget to support an event or activity organised to benefit the School community. Grant holders may choose to merge budgets to support a joint venture. This year, the grants were awarded to Nancy (Upper Sixth, Swift), Zack (Upper Sixth, Gascoigne), Oscar (Upper Sixth, Vanbrugh), Louis (Upper Sixth, Swift) and Calla (Upper Sixth, Feilden). We spoke to Nancy, Zack and Calla about the Leadership Grant programme, the successful organisation of a whole School RAG Week, and how their experiences on the South Africa Sports Tour inspired their choice of charity for the initiative.
How were you selected for the Leadership Grant Award?
N – Each student is encouraged to apply by writing a letter in which you talk about your suitability for a Grant, your achievements and contribution to the School over your time here. You also suggest ways in which you could improve the School and what you feel you can offer the Sixth Form.
Z –Ten people were shortlisted to do a presentation in front of all the applicants, five of those applicants were then selected to receive the Grant.
C – Before we gave our presentations, Mr Tolputt’s sister came to School and gave us a masterclass on public speaking, giving feedback to help us improve.
What does it mean to be a Leadership Grant Award Holder?
N – It really is an honour to be selected. We are given responsibilities that we would not ordinarily have.
C – It is a step beyond the role of the Prefect.
Z – There is no other position within the School where we would have the opportunity to organise as big of an event as the whole School RAG (Raising and Giving) Week.
How did you decide on doing a RAG Week?
Z – When we first met as a group, we decided that our event would be more effective if we all came together and pooled our resources. This gave us a total budget of £1,250 rather than £250 each.
C – The thought behind our decision to choose to do a RAG Week was to create an event that would bring the School together.
N – We wanted to do something to raise money for charity, focusing on giving back to the community.
Why did you feel that was important?
C – At the time we started thinking about our event, the First Form had just moved up to the Senior School. They can sometimes feel a disconnection to the older years, and we thought this would be a great way to bring us together and help to make them feel included.
Z – After COVID, there was also a period of time where we were all separated into year groups, so, for a while, we lost contact with other year groups.
How did you go about organising the events?
Z – It started with meetings with Mr Gale and Mr Tolputt, then in the last few months it was purely student-led. We needed the teachers’ help initially to organise some of the basics; when we would be able to hold it, the impact on lessons and permission for the various events to take place.
How did you get others involved in the planning and running of the events?
Z – Each tutor group had their own stall; they had to come up with the idea for their stall themselves, with very little or no budget at all.
C – We gave them card readers and cash floats and set tables up for them on the day they were running their stalls.
N – Stalls ranged from sponging teachers, leg waxing, Wii (where pupils competed against each other), to splat the rat, palm reading and a human jackpot!
C – They got very creative. We were thrilled with their ideas, and they raised lots of money too.
N – On the Friday of the RAG Week, we had a ‘home clothes day’ and a giant inflatable obstacle course, which pupils paid to have a go on with their contribution to the ‘home clothes day’.
How did you ensure that the events appealed to a wide range of pupils?
C – By letting tutor groups run their own stalls, it became something personally interesting to them, something that they could take ownership of themselves.
Z – On each day, there was at least one stall from each year group. This also encouraged pupils to support their peers in their own year group as well as others across the School.
N – A few of us went round to House assemblies explaining the event, what was happening during the week and what we were raising money for.
How successful did you think it was?
N – It was hugely successful and we are very proud of what we achieved.
C – The atmosphere in the quads was electric, and the tutor groups were amazing at coming up with ideas for their stalls.
Z – We also exceeded our fundraising target, which was fantastic.
What skills did you learn from organising this event? How did you use your Leadership skills?
Z – As there were five of us, we all ended up specialising in different areas, using our different skillsets.
N – It was difficult at the start, as we all had different ideas of what we wanted to do. We had to come together and compromise. We had not worked together that much before, so it was an opportunity to work with different people.
What advice would you give the next cohort of Leadership Grant holders in organising their event?
Z – Time management! You have to get your core idea ready early. We would have benefited from finalising the basic details earlier, such as locking in the date.
N – That would have improved our communication with the other year groups; it was hard to relay information effectively when there were still important details we had not confirmed.
C – You also have to come up with a really creative idea that everyone will enjoy and support you with.
You decided to raise money for the Pebbles Project. Can you tell us how and why you decided to choose this charity?
Z – The charity supports children whose parents are in work and from farming backgrounds, giving them access to education and health services. The funding they receive from the government per child simply is not enough to provide what they need. This is why fundraising for the charity is so important.
N – We saw the amazing work this charity does first-hand on our Sports Tour to South Africa. They are a South African-based charity with multiple locations across the country.
Did you participate in any activities with the charity whilst you were there?
N – We spent time with the children there, playing games with them in the garden, drawing and just seeing how they spend their time each day. It was a wonderful and uplifting experience.
What impact did the charity’s work have on you personally?
Z – Speaking to children who were in such poverty and in a vulnerable state was very moving, yet every single one of those children had a smile on their face.
N – It made us feel extremely privileged and grateful for what we have. The teachers and children were just so genuinely happy to see us, they sang us their school songs when we left, it was really touching.
Z – The trip had such an impact on us. When we returned and were given the opportunity to organise this RAG Week, we did not hesitate to choose to support the Pebbles Project.
Why do you think this sort of charity work is important? How did you share that message?
C – I was lucky enough to go on the World Challenge trip to Malawi. Experiences like that really change your attitude and open your eyes to global issues.
N – We sent out a PowerPoint to the whole School, telling everyone about the charity so they could engage with it and feel a closer connection to it. We needed the School to get behind us to make it successful; if we could convey our passion for the charity to pupils, then they could also feel passionate about supporting it.
Z – We also shared photos of us with the children so they could see the connection between our School and the charity – it made it more personal.
C – Fundraising and charity is not just about the financial aspects, though; it is also about raising awareness.
Congratulations to our Leadership Grant Holders, who raised an incredible £2261 for the Pebbles Project.
