Dear all,

As you are aware, we have been asked to adopt a cashless system for fundraising events. The House staff and I are greatly looking forward to the Track and Field event on 4th May this year, and it would not be the same without House fundraising stalls.

As with last year, and the Christmas Fair in December, we will be running a token system for the stalls. Please see below a reminder of how this works:

How it will work

The House stalls will operate on a ‘token’ system. Each House will run events/raffles and will charge however many tokens they feel appropriate, much like a funfair. Each token will equate to the value of £1, so prices should be reasonable (i.e. 1 token for 3 raffle tickets/ 1 token for a lucky dip).

In order for the system to operate efficiently, parents will be asked to purchase tokens for their child IN ADVANCE of the day itself. There will not be an opportunity to buy tokens/pay cash on the day itself. A JustGiving page will be set up for the event, and parents will be asked to donate however much money they wish, which will in turn reflect the number of tokens their child can spend on the day (£5 = 5 tokens etc).

It is imperative that parents state the INITIALS and FORM of their child (e.g. AB 7CHJ) , so that the tokens can be given to the student on the morning of the event by their form tutor. If it is not clear who the donation is being paid on behalf of, there is a risk of students not getting their tokens. Please also ensure the donation amount is visible as this will inform how many tokens a student receives. Please note that the donations will be set up to go to Brentwood School (as a registered charity) and then the tokens will be counted for each House at the end of the event and the appropriate sum of money distributed to the House charities by the bursary.

For reference, the House charities are as follows:

North - Kids Inspire

South - St Francis’ Hospice 

Weald - Little Havens Hospice

East - Next Chapter

West - Essex Wildlife Trust

School - Challenging MND

The JustGiving page will go live on Wednesday 20th April (a letter will be sent to all parents with the link) and will close at midnight on Wednesday 27th April.

Please note that no tokens can be purchased after this time and that any anonymised donations will not necessarily be able to be tracked to the correct students. If you cannot see the information about your child on the JustGiving page, we are not able to see it either.

A list will be drawn up which reflects which students have purchased tokens and how many. 

Students can choose to spend tokens on any stall they want, the tokens will look the same for each House, and they are all worth £1 each. 

The tokens will be bagged and labeled and given to Heads of Year on Tuesday 3rd May. Form tutors should then collect the bags for students in their form and distribute them at registration on Wednesday 4th May. 

Please note, if your child has any RED tokens from the Christmas fair, these can be used as the charities are the same for both events.

Please contact Mr Wright (Head of House), Mrs Hardy (Head of Charity) or Mrs Portway (Bursary) if you have any queries.

Many thanks for your support of this initiative.