Charities
At the High School we pride ourselves in the work we do for the wider community. This includes fundraising for charities at home and overseas. Some of the events occur every year, while others are on an ad hoc basis. Some are whole school events, with others being through departments or through our charities committee and our team of pupils called ‘High Helpers’. Below we detail just some of the events that pupils and staff get involved in.
The High School of Dundee has raised a mug in support of Macmillan Cancer Relief’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning event for over 15 years. More than 500 pupils and staff participate in the event every year, which is one of around 45,000 coffee mornings across the UK. Juice and crisps are sold at the High School pillars, which are decorated for the event with Macmillan banners and balloons, whilst home baking is sold in the staff rooms for staff at coffee time. The coffee morning is a great opportunity to let our staff and pupils know about the work of Macmillan Cancer Relief.
The High School holds its annual Charities Christmas Fair every November. It takes place in Trinity Hall and includes stalls with Christmas goodies, craft and charity stalls, and face painting. Coffee and cakes are also on sale, courtesy of Brodies, and visitors have the opportunity to participate in a fundraising raffle. Younger visitors are catered for with an Elves Grotto, offering a variety of exciting activities to keep them entertained. The event runs from 10am - 2pm, and entry is charged at £2 for adults and £1 for children. Parking is also available in the school playground for a small charge, and all are welcome to attend. All profits from the day go to charity.
F6 members of the School’s Interact Club, the Junior branch of Rotary International, regularly raise funds for children's charities. In recent years, the Club has organised the collection of more than 200 presents from pupils, parents and staff for the Kean’s Children’s Fund. The Club has also been involved in raising £500 in aid of a Barnardo’s project for Dundee primary-aged children through various initiatives including a Christmas candy cane delivery service.
The annual Christmas Concert, which takes place in the Caird Hall in December, typically raises thousands of pounds for local charities, with beneficiaries in recent years including Tayside Children with Cancer and Leukaemia and Dundee Disabled Children's Association. More than 400 pupils take part in the event each year, which is organised by the Music Department.
Pupils in the Junior School regularly raise money to continue sponsorship of four children in the Mashimoni Squatters’ School in Kenya. As part of a recent Africa Day, each child brought in money to buy a ‘visa', which allowed them to visit five or six different activities all related to Africa. These ranged from learning about mosquitoes to doing Zulu dancing, from taking part in experiments to see water purification at work to making tribal masks, from making flags to the little ones dancing as animals.
There are many more activities that both staff and pupils have been involved in, ranging from cake sales to raise money for the children of Chernobyl and the British Red Cross to cycling from Lands’ End to John O’Groats and running marathons for Help for Heroes. Oh, and don’t forget Comic Relief!
Pupils are strongly enouraged to get involved in charitable enterprises, whether through the High Helpers team, which supports the Charities Committee in running events; through the Interact Club for Senior pupils, or through the dozens of other fundraising activities that take place throughout the school year.