Children at a Selby school are taking action to help homelessness in the town.
Years 3 and 4 at Staynor Hall Community Primary Academy gathered donations of adult clothes, toiletries and tinned food to help support people in the local community and even experienced what a soup kitchen might be like when there’s nowhere else to turn.
Tracey Romaine, founder of Selby charity Sleepsafe, which aims to relieve the needs of homeless people in Selby and the surrounding area, and Joseph Busuttil, a colleague who once used the service, dropped in to the school to meet the children and collect the donations. They also showed them a tent and some of the supplies they can give people if they don’t have any rooms available.
All of the children at Staynor Hall Community Primary Academy – part of Ebor Academy Trust – had a whole school focus on charities and it was Years 3 and 4 who started a campaign to help support Sleepsafe. They created posters and wrote persuasive paragraphs urging community support.
In another session they received an inspirational 40-minute video call from a soup kitchen in Brixton, which told the children how hard life can be on the streets.
“We made our own soup kitchen and children drank the soup outside, reflecting on what life is like for people struggling with homelessness,” said Hannah Spark, Year 3 teacher at the school.
Vicky Danbury, Year 4 teacher said: “The children said it made them realise how lucky they are and it gave them time to be grateful for what they have in their lives.”
Miss Spark and Mrs Danbury said they and the children were now looking at other projects to help the homeless.
- Photo shows Tracey Romaine and Joseph Busuttil from Sleepsafe with children at Staynor Hall Community Primary Academy, who have collected donations for Selby’s homeless people.