Big Give 2024 - where did the money go?

The 2025 Big Give Christmas Challenge will soon be upon us, during which every donation will be doubled - fantastic! But before talking about that, what about last year? Thanks to you - the 2024 Christmas Challenge was a HUGE success. Our original target of £30,000 was well and truly smashed, with a final total of over £40,000! So where has the money gone so far?.....

Computer equipment - original target £11,900. So far £12,020 has been spent on adding 24 new workstations, upgrading the main servers & networking system and finally landing on a better internet system (for the techies among you, this is a microwave dish system providing 60mbs speed - great for here, but still woefully slow for the 100+ computers that are connected).  We also managed to buy a high speed printer/copier which has become a teacher favourite. An extra £3,000 has been set aside to add more equipment and improve the internet yet further at the end of this year.

Students in the extended Computer Lab

Technical back up equipment - original target £6,800. We have spent £9,037 so far, mainly on improving the solar back up systems as well as CCTV security. Since then, we secured a further grant to vastly improve the solar to allow us to fully back up the power for all our projects (but that will be a subject for another news article).  Another £2,000 has been earmarked for futher CCTV & technical improvements when this term ends.

The 'new' office baby...                                                               Upgraded solar panels being installed

Lovely solar power                                             Irene manning the CCTV

Furniture - original target £5,800. £7,241 has been spent to date. Most going on library and science lab tables, stools and shelving. Another £2,000 has been set aside to help the school with starting to upgrade the 400 + beds in the dormitories before the start of the new academic year next February.

Furniture & computers for A' Level                           Equipment & furniture in the new Science Lab

A' Level books - original target £3,000. It is fair to say that this is Elspeth's favourite area - and to date £3,538 has been spent with another £1,500 order to increase the stock at the end of term, as the new A' Level curriculum gets rolled out further next year.

Manoa with the A' Level books

Science equipment - original target £2,500. Pretty close at £2,524 spent so far! Again, a further £1,500 has been put aside for more equipment as the new science curriculum is revealed for next year.

Lots of equipment for extra experiments

So, £34,360 spent so far with another ~£10,000 in hand to spend before next academic year (February 2026) for these important areas. Job done!

Thank you all so much again for your interest and support. We wanted to properly report back on where the money goes - no overheads mean that eveything hits the intended target.

Finally, we are so pleased to be taking part in the 2025 Big Give Christmas challenge again this year, when all donations will be doubled. The focus will be on raising up opportunities for girls and sport. Roll on December....!