DIARY OF A FUNDRAISER
Even working part-time, Balsall Common Primary’s director of funding and publicity Howard Rose had a strong start to 2020
January I’m a big fan of the business adage, ‘plan your work, then work your plan’ – and it’s certainly paid off. I have compiled a list of charities and grant givers, with windows to apply and deadlines. I have also created a diary of application dates for annual and biannual grants, such as Awards for All, Birmingham Airport, One Stop and Tesco. It was great to hear at the
start of the year that our school had been granted £10,000 from Berkswell Parish Church to refurbish the swimming pool, following an application last September. The pool fl oor had severely deteriorated and it had been under threat of closure due to health and safety. The grant means we will be able to
continue swimming lessons for around 1,000 children who use our pool every week. Since the start of the
academic year, my aim has been to organise visitors and fundraising events to match the curriculum as far as possible. The school has upped its eco focus recently, and we hit the ground running this month with our classroom Oceans topic. I asked the Bear Grylls
Experience at the NEC to run a training session on plastic pollution. I also organised a behind-the-scenes tour of the facilities, including the aquarium. In addition, the school raised enough money for Water Aid to sponsor two wells in Africa. And Julie Dixon of energy supplier E.ON came into school to talk at an eco assembly
and explain how we can all do our part to save energy and use more sustainable sources, such as wind farms and solar energy. As part of the school’s
Rivers topic, I organised visits by representatives from Arup – a locally based structural engineering company with an international reach that includes the Sydney Opera House and the Millennium Bridge. The engineers gave practical demonstrations
about how precipitation works and its impact on planning, and where and what you are able to build. Arup built a nearby business park, Blythe Valley, and had to re-route a river and put in eco-friendly reed beds to clean the water and protect wildlife. The
children were amazed because they had never considered all of the implications of rainfall, or indeed how many different roles an engineer can play in the built environment. Hopefully, we inspired some pupils to become the engineers of the future.
36 SUMMER 2020 FundEd
February For Science Week, I received three packs of a Design Process Box from Dyson. This introduces primary school students to product design, challenging them to fi nd inspiration in everyday objects to develop ideas and solve problems. As part of our ongoing
partnership with Solihull College, I arranged for 12 ‘Science Ambassadors’ from Balsall Common to visit
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