RRS NEWS
THE REGIS SCHOOL FOOD DRIVE - FRIDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2019
THE REGIS SCHOOL STUDENT CHOSEN TO REPRESENT UNICEF UK
-
Year 9 student Kendra traveled to Lesotho, southern Africa, to film promotional video ahead of this year’s Soccer Aid fundraiser
-
Whole school is the face of Soccer Aid’s new Playground Challenge on 8 June
-
This follows the school’s Unicef Rights Respecting School Gold Award and ongoing charity work
A Year 9 student from The Regis School recently became an ambassador for Unicef UK, travelling to Lesotho in Africa to film as a young reporter for its new Soccer Aid campaign.
As the only non-celebrity to be chosen as the front face of the campaign, Kendra had the special opportunity to travel to southern Africa to promote Unicef’s work ahead of this year’s Soccer Aid fundraiser on 10 June.
She was selected for the experience because of the impressive awareness and fundraising work that she and students at The Regis School have been doing for Unicef. As a Gold-level Rights Respecting School, The Regis School has spent a number of years supporting the work of the charity and developing student-led social action projects.
The school was invited by Unicef to hold a video competition for students who wanted to visit Lesotho to see some of the aid work underway and the communities benefiting. Kendra’s winning video submission centred on the work her late grandmother had done to support sick children in Africa and her personal desire to help enable disabled children around the world to access the same opportunities as everyone else.
During the trip, which was Kendra’s first time outside of the UK and first experience of film-making, she filmed a series of videos for the charity. As part of this she visited a school for local children in Lesotho, who had recently had a water pump and toilets installed by Unicef UK, with the support of British government aid. She also learned about the work of Sentebale, the charity set up by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho to support the mental health and wellbeing of children affected by HIV.
Kendra said of her video:
The first couple of times I watched the film it made me cry. I was nervous at the time about what people were going to think about it but I’ve had really positive feedback to it from my family and friends. But people can never experience what I experienced – you don’t know what it’s really like out there unless you see it.
The Regis School has also been chosen as the face of Unicef’s Playground Challenge for Soccer Aid and so all 1,500 students featured in another promotional video for the charity. As part of this, all students and staff took part in an obstacle course to demonstrate how schools across the country can get involved in setting up their own fundraising challenge on 8 June. The course involved nine activities – from basketball and football dribbling to hurdles and a tunnel – which were devised by The Regis School’s student ambassadors and sports leaders.
Mike Garlick, Principal of The Regis School, who took part in the obstacle course alongside several of his colleagues, said:
At our school, we aim to deliver an Education with Character and teach students the value of leadership, compassion and service alongside their academic subjects. Our role as a Rights Respecting School is a significant part of this drive and we are hugely proud of the work that students like Kendra and our ambassadors do each year to support Unicef and other excellent causes.
As a whole school community, it was fantastic to be able to lead the way for the Playground Challenge and raise money and awareness through such an enjoyable day of physical challenge. As always, we were grateful to have the support of our parents, governors and wider community who helped us reach our fundraising goal of £1,000 towards safe spaces for children in disaster areas.”
This year’s Soccer Aid match will be England v Soccer Aid World XI and take place on 10 June at Old Trafford. Tickets can be purchased here but the game will also be shown on ITV.
Kendra as well as 12 other students at The Regis School have been invited to attend for their contributions to the charity.
The film below features Kendra taking part in the playground challenge in Lesotho and then returning to TRS and working with her fellow Rights Respecting School Ambassadors to plan and take part in our very own Playground Challenge. This film has been sent to schools across the UK to encourage them to take part in Soccer Aid playground Challenge (8th June 2018). All 1500 staff and students at the school took part and our Principal, Mike Garlick can be seen enthusiastically getting involved.
https://live.firstnews.co.uk/unicef/lesotho-africa-playground-challenge
The next two films show Kendra reporting from Lesotho to show where the Soccer Aid for UNICEF money goes. This was her first time outside of the UK and her first experience of film making. Eight students from TRS applied for the opportunity and Kendra’s passion and resilience shone through, ensuring she was successfully selected for the challenge. We were approached by UNICEF to suggest a student from TRS in recognition of our commitment to the Unicef Rights Respecting Schools programme and were the only school in the country to be given the opportunity.
https://live.firstnews.co.uk/unicef/lesotho-africa-impact-unicef/
https://live.firstnews.co.uk/unicef/lesotho-africa-impact-unicef-copy/