November 2023: Shoppers raise cash with tokens

Thanks to shoppers who voted for us with your Tesco blue tokens! We have been awarded £500 for the school.

The blue token scheme ran over the summer months and we were one of three good causes benefiting from the vote at Tesco Thornbury. Brilliant!

November 2023: Head-scratching quiz night's a winner

Quizzers descended on school for eight rounds of fun and raised several hundred pounds. Fourteen teams entered and the winners were, ironically, a team of teachers. Congratulations!

A pop-up bar kept everyone refreshed during the event and sixth formers also held a raffle to raise money for an educational trip abroad.

Thanks to everyone who supported us, and those who helped out including the CSF volunteers and Graham and Josh our quizmasters who kept everyone in order.

The winning team were Sam, Jenny, Karen and Andy who won a fish n chips supper courtesy of Parkys Chippy in Thornbury.

Request: if your company offers match-funding to charity events please get in touch and help us potentially double the takings from this quiz - thank you.

July 2023: Car boot sale

Thanks to all our car booters who braved the early morning showers! We had around 100 people on site and the pre-loved uniform sale was a success too, so a good amount of money was raised for school.

July 2023: The Friendship Garden

We are thrilled to have been part of a garden project directly helping students with extra needs at the Castle School.

The Friendship Garden was funded by CSF along with parent Cheryl Jenkinson who crowdfunded a part of the £5,000 needed to transform a patch of scrub and brambles.

The project was overseen by Castle School's Special Educational Needs department.

To officially open the garden a brass plaque was unveiled by Cheryl, with Justin Warr representing CSF, and Andy Bethell from the school.

The Friendship Garden is a quiet outdoor space which SEN students can visit under supervision. It includes seating along with a wildlife wall mural, bug hotels, vegetable planters, sunflowers and other colourful items of interest.

July 2023: Latest wishlist available now

Did you know there’s a Wishlist on Amazon packed with items the school needs? Prices range from £4 upwards for items ranging from glue sticks to paint sticks and items for the learning support sensory room.

A special thanks to the kind parent/carer who recently bought some books for the school library - many  of these have already been loaned out and we took this fun snap of some busy students enjoying a read.

Click here if you would like to browse our latest wishlist - thank you!

June 2023: Appeal for used uniform and revision guides

Attention school leavers - thanks so much to everyone donating their used uniforms to school, but we need more!

Second hand uniform goes to help disadvantaged students and is appreciated very much by the school community. It’s easy to donate your old school clothes, simply remove any name labels and pop them in a bag clearly marked as a uniform donation then drop them in at main school reception. Similarly, for those finishing formal exams this summer - that’s years 11 and 13 - your old revision guides are hugely beneficial to the school too, so why not declutter :-) You can find more detail on what we need by clicking on this webpage.

Thank you.

May 2023: Large grant funds gym equipment

School has taken delivery of a host of new gym equipment for the fitness suite, courtesy of a whopping £2,500 grant from WPA Health Insurance, applied for by Castle School Friends.

The equipment includes a brand new rowing machine, two new exercise bikes, multiple fitness trampets, free weights, skipping ropes, resistance bands, a pull-up machine and a sit-up board.

Head of PE Miss Underwood says: "The students will benefit hugely from this new equipment. We are really excited to be able to reintroduce fitness lessons back into our curriculum and also to be able to use this space to facilitate some theoretical elements of our GCSE course. Thank you so much."

May 2023: Donations for the school

We wanted to share our thanks for two very kind donations. The first is courtesy of an anonymous donor who paid for 35 white boards for the music department at school. We are so very grateful, these will be used by students throughout Key Stage 3 and will make a huge difference in the classroom. Thank you.

Our second ‘thanks’ goes to a lady called Kerry who found us online and sent a bunch of revision guides and other classroom equipment along with a handwritten letter. Thank you Kerry.

Contributions like these mean a lot to us and the school :-)

May 2023: It's a full house!

Well done to our bingo winners and everyone who joined in to make the evening such a success. The school hall was a flurry of activity as 80 players listened intently, dabbing the numbers as they were called.

It was especially lovely to see so many young people taking part and bringing the place to life, not to mention claiming sweet treats for every line filled on their bingo cards!

Prizes included school clothes vouchers, a drone, air fryer and the top prize of a family annual pass for Old Down Country Park was won by Olivia Hawkins.

The evening raised lots of money for the school and was a great way to bring people together for fun, we do hope you enjoyed it!

March 2023: Science kit gifted by CSF

Science students are benefiting from the latest CSF gifts to the school which are now in daily use.

New items include ammeters, balances, D-cell holders, and cable leads which are helping students and staff in a number of ways.

They allow more students to get stuck in at the same time, so less time waiting and more time learning. Old unreliable kit is replaced so fewer breakdowns and repairs. And the newer, better equipment gives students more creative options in the circuits they build.

February 2023: Table Top Sale success

Our table top sale at school attracted 29 sellers and many dozens of buyers. The event raised over £250 for the school, with an additional sum from the sale of second hand uniform.

Thanks to everyone who supported including school staff for opening up and CSF volunteers for organising the day.

February 2023: Art tablets for students

Eight new digital tablets are helping GCSE and A-Level students in the art classroom.

The tablets were gifted by CSF and allow students to draw directly onto a computer using brushes and shapes to create artwork quickly and accurately.

Previously, students would hand-draw their work and scan it which took longer and meant cleaning their images for use.

The new tablets also mean students who do not have home access to iPads and other touch screen computers can get the same effects and develop their own styles in the classroom.

February 2023: New white goods for the school

School has taken delivery of three brand new items! CSF donated a fridge/freezer to the Student Centre where it is being used to safely store ice packs and medicines. And two kitchen cookers have been donated to the Food Technology department following a fundraiser at Tortworth Lake last summer, where CSF volunteers sold cakes and bakes donated by generous members of the local community. The cookers are now in use by key stage 3 and 4 students under staff supervision.

January 2023: New lighting tower for the main school hall

Castle School Friends were delighted to gift a £2,000 lighting tower to the school, as one of a number of items on a priority wish-list. This safe and practical tower has already been used to enhance dance and music productions and next up is the Drama Club production ‘Once Upon a Time' in February.