Do you remember your time at school?  Most of my memories are good ones.  Looking back, I still remember some teachers that looked out for me, particularly when my parents divorced, and I remember the words of encouragement they gave fondly.  Some of those words, I credit today for some of my successes in life.

Also school kids show empathy and love to other school kids, especially if they are less fortunate than themselves.

Recently Great Minds Bright Futures has reached out to many schools across the North West to help our charity in a variety of ways and actually we are flexible in our approach, so that we can fit in with as many schools as possible.

One such school is St Thomas of Canterbury Roman Catholic Primary School in St. Helens.  They unconventionally heard about us through their cleaning lady who was aware of a clothes collection at a neighbouring school.

I was invited into school by their Head, Lyn Rawlinson.  The children had collected uniforms and the school donated books to our children in Malawi.  I cannot express enough what a difference to the lives of Malawi orphans these items will make to them.

Lyn and I spoke about me being able to provide an assembly for the children to let them know about where their donations would be going.  Lyn was thrilled that I was able to offer this to the children and she spoke about her desire to find a charity to work with, allowing her children to benefit from being involved with helping others less fortunate.

The assembly was fun!  The kids were already relaxed, dressed down in pyjamas for the end of term.

It’s always daunting for me, especially because there is such a big age range from reception through to year 6 children, however, like all schools I visit the children at St Thomas of Canterbury provided lots of interaction and questions from all year groups!

My favourite part was listening to the normal school assembly part, which included acknowledging and rewarding some children for their extra-curricular activities!  It gave immense feelings of pride in the children, as they beamed with smiles at their achievements and their peers gave huge congratulations to them.

Lyn and I talked afterwards about some longer-term connections to benefit my children in Malawi and the children at St Thomas too!

We set up a zoom meeting and discussed Great Minds Bright Futures working with St Thomas of Canterbury at least every term.  We have agreed that the school will do a collection of clothes in the Spring term, toiletries in the Autumn term and in the Summer term a fundraiser that would provide enough funds to sponsor one of our children in Malawi.  A child that the school can track the progress of, with updates from us.

Great Minds Bright Futures is a small UK based charity and our ability to be flexible allows us to react to the needs of each and every school.  If schools want to sponsor a child, that’s great.  If they want to donate unloved books and clothing, that too is great.  If they want longer-term partnerships for years and years to come, we are thrilled with that.  Whatever the school need, we can accommodate.  Afterall, some of these young learners might want to visit our children in Malawi one day, and we can accommodate that too.

Lyn Rawlinson commented,

“The St Thomas of Canterbury school community are pleased to be supporting the work of Great Minds Bright Futures and making links with children in Malawi.

We teach the children here about the principles  of Catholic Social Teaching (solidarity and the life and dignity of the human person) and by making this global link we are giving the children opportunity to consider and help others less fortunate than themselves.”

If you know any Heads or school teachers, then please do share this article with them.  School children in the UK and Malawi can gain huge benefits from helping and learning from one another.  Let’s do this!

Dave Armstrong

Founder Great Minds Bright Futures