Stockcross school fundraising race complete

Stockcross Primary School braved one final push over the weekend to reach its £12,500 fundraising target for a new shared learning area — and succeeded.

On Friday (February 24) pupils, parents and teachers ran the equivalent of three ultra-marathons from 1.30-3pm around the Stockcross Recreation Ground. At 500 metres per lap, this equated to 155 miles.

And on Sunday, a delegation of parents, teachers, governors — and a dog — ran in the Wokingham Half Marathon, with another teacher completing a 21 kilometre walk through Newbury.

Co-chair of Stockcross PTFA, Ellen Hunter Smart, shared her thoughts on Friday's event.

"They were amazing, they absolutely smashed it," she said. "We thought 500 was a really ambitious goal, but they ran so determinedly and they could have done more."

The whole school turned out for the challenge, including parents and teachers, who sponsored their little ones. Despite the eventual downpour, pupils were still "buzzing" by the end.

"Even the little ones were doing six-seven laps each. The atmosphere was great," she added. "It was thrilling watching the total go up and up with these lovely donations and good wishes coming in from sponsors."

The massive combined effort — with generous £5,000 match funding from Greenham Trust — means the school now requires less than £500 to proceed with renovating the new space, located in the heart of the school.

A generous £200 donation from a local building firm, topped up with leftover funds from a school Christmas event, also added to the total.

You can visit https://app.thegoodexchange.com/project/19802/stockcross-parent-teacher-and-friends-association/the-shared-learning-area-project to help get the school over the finish line.

Works on the new area, previously an ICT suite, will commence over the Easter holidays to be ready for the summer term. The space will serve breakout study groups from classrooms across the whole school.