Last week was the Saint Vincent De Paul Awareness Week in our school. As part of this, the Junior and Senior SVP Conferences worked hard to inform our entire school community about the wonderful work that SVP does all over the world, especially in our school community. We had numerous meetings and tried to think of creative ways to raise awareness and fundraise for this worthy cause.
Firstly, we appointed a couple of girls to make a large poster to hang up in reception as this is where most people would see it. We got blue and white tape to decorate the school stairs at the entrance of the school. It looked great. Other members of the conference worked on posters at home and by Tuesday morning, the whole school was covered in SVP posters. We made announcements on the intercom and had a slide on the screen at reception.
In addition, the hamper committee brought in the wrapped boxes to place in all the form classes. They spoke to the form classes about the Luxury Hamper Appeal and encouraged everyone to bring in luxury Christmas food.
During the week, members of the conference set up a peer teaching system. This involved going into first, second and third year classes and explaining about the brilliant work that SVP does. A PowerPoint created by the PowerPoint committee was used to help the peer teachers with their work. Overall, it was a great success and the younger years learned a lot of new and useful information.
As well as the peer teaching, the Public Relations Officers of the conference spoke in the staff room about the ways that the staff can contribute to our cause. For example, Mr. Carolan wore blue shirts for the week to show his support. We feel that it is vital for everyone, not just students to be involved with SVP.
The Senior SVP conference contributed greatly to the week. They had the brilliant idea of making “Who is Frederic?” posters. This got everybody wondering about Frederic Ozanam, founder of SVP. On Friday, they his scrolls containing clues about his identity and gave prizes to whoever found them. Everyone agreed that it was a super and fun way to spread the word about SVP. They also sold lollypops with an SVP sticker on them. All the profits will contribute to the SVP Christmas party.
Finally, we began to organise a sponsored 5km run to raise money for the upcoming Christmas party. We will be doing the run in MarleyParkon the 3rd of December.
In conclusion, Saint Vincent De Paul Awareness Week went very smoothly. We were really happy with the Peer Teaching and felt that it was a huge success. All the students responded well to the PowerPoint and learned a great amount. The lollypops were also very popular. The two SVP conferences would like to especially thank Ella Murray Golden’s father who sponsored the lollies with the logo of SVP on them. The week was a brilliant success and we feel that we achieved everything we could have hoped for.
We are now planning for the SVP party for vulnerable children and working hard on our luxury hamper appeal.
Thank you to the whole school community for the continuous support.
