Keep Those Balls Up!

Buttsbury Junior School RotaKids welcomed members of the Billericay Rotary club to their main fundraiser of the year.  An event was planned and prepared by the members of the school council and RotaKids Officers with input from the whole school.

Charity begins At School

The children voted for their chosen charity, the British Heart Foundation, earlier in the school year and this was an excellent opportunity to support it in its fantastic work.

Headteacher Ann Robinson said “All the money raised will go the children’s chosen charity this year - The British Heart Foundation - which, if you pardon the pun, is a charity close to many of our hearts, including mine.”

The children decided (after lots of deliberation!) to host a sponsored racquet and ball event; Keep Those Balls Up!  They had one minute to see how many bounces they could do on their racquet, usually with a tennis ball. But it was an inclusive event, so children were able to select the ball they used - e.g. foam ball for the less confident, tennis balls for Years Five and Six.

Many of the children were sponsored per bounce and became very competitive, wanting to earn as much money for charity as possible! It was a brilliantly fun morning with balls flying all over the place with a great cause at its heart.

Panthers Win Through

Not only that, but it was an inter-house competition, with each child’s bounces totalled up by their house for the year they were in.  The winners in each year were:

Year 3 - Panthers with a total of 1645 bounces
Year 4 - Jaguars with a total of 2572 bounces
Year 5 - Jaguars with a total of 1983 bounces
Year 6 - Panthers with a total of 2689 bounces

And the overall winners were the Panthers who just beat the Jaguars into second place.  Well done to all the children in Panthers!

And what did they raise?  In the tradition of the school, yet again a large total and this year reaching £3228.