Hi all! We are running our first ever half marathon on Sunday 8th September at the New Forest Marathon. We are supporting our children’s school in our village in Sway by raising some funds for them in the process.

We know that all schools across England are struggling with funding issues, but having received recent letters from our headteacher showing that this year the school has a £77,000 shortfall we decided to try to help in our own small way.

Unfortunately, for the school this reduction in funding means staff cuts, a reduction in staff development, stopping the use of certain online educational support software for the children in Maths and English and having to ask for donations for stationary and Maths books. We have been in contact with our local MP who has been raising this with the Educations Minister, but we know that no more funding will be coming our way in the foreseeable future.

Fundraising and donations to the school are only a short-term fix, but we’ve done what we can with the government at this stage. We don’t want our children to be disadvantaged, and many of the parents are trying different ways to raise funds to help so this is our attempt!

We wanted to ask you as friends, family and local people if you would support us in running this event please! Even a few pounds will help, please give what you can! Only a week to go!

Thank you for your support. :-)

Michelle and Annie x

PS You can donate here online or if you are local to Sway you can pop into our lovely Sway butchers and pop a pound or two into the collection box there! Thank you! x

Please note that this is a crowdfunding page and all proceeds will go to St Luke's C of E Primary School Sway. The PTA charity Friends of St Luke's School Sway (FOSLSS) has an application in process for HMRC to register for Gift Aid which is why we haven't been able to raise funds directly to the charity on this occasion.