We are raising money for the children’s ward at our local NHS hospital, Wexham Park Hospital in Slough. Our proposed initiative is for you and your extended family and friends around the world to sponsor your child to learn a set number of Christmas songs and traditional carols off by heart.

As we know, Christmas can be such a wonderful time for many of us and a time when we spend precious time with loved ones. The traditional carols and modern Christmas songs have become synonymous with this wonderfully festive time of the year, and it is important that our Upton children are able to carry the tradition forwards, learning our Christmas favourites.

At the same time, we recognise that there are many much less fortunate than us and many children will face a very different Christmas in hospital this year.

Our proposal is that children in each of the three key stages at Upton House (EYFS, Pre-Prep and Prep) will be sponsored to learn carols and Christmas songs off by heart (i.e. memorise them so that they can sing them without needing words). The EYFS and Pre-Prep children will then be recorded singing the songs towards the end of term. These recorded performances will feed into a live performance by the Prep children in front of a live audience on Saturday 11th December at Upton House School. This performance, which will include the recorded EYFS and Pre-Prep children singing, will be live streamed to extended family and friends around the world (the sponsors) as well as to the children in the children’s ward at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough. We will essentially be their virtual carol singers this year, as they will not have traditional carol singing on the ward due to COVID restrictions.

We suggest that £5 per carol would be a good starting point (of course the harder carols might warrant a little more to encourage the children to learn them!). The challenge is as
follows:

EYFS (Pre-Nursery, Nursery and Transition) – 4 carols

Pre-Prep (Forms 1 and 2) - 6 carols

Prep (Forms 3 to 6) – 8 carols

Of course, the children are extremely welcome (and indeed encouraged) to learn as many songs on the sheet as possible if they would like to, and we very much hope that you will enjoy
singing many of them as a family over the festive period. Please note that this is a school carol singing sheet, which we use when we sing carols around the tree later in the term, and therefore some of the carols and songs have been shortened deliberately for the children.

Our target is to raise £10,000 for the children’s ward and my song A Brand New Start has raised what is heading towards £4,000 so far. We know that with your help we can reach this target and make some children’s Christmas that little bit better. £6,000 to go!

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.