School bid to raise £1m

2:40pm Monday 12th May 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

A SCHOOL is marking its golden anniversary by launching an ambitious attempt to raise £1m.

Cundall Manor School, set in 50-acres between Ripon and Thirsk, takes children, boys and girls, aged from two-and-a-half to 16.

It is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and has launched a major fund-raising drive to enable a number of improvements to be carried out.

They include replacing temporary buildings with permanent structures, building an all-weather play surface, four new tennis courts and a music school, establishing a pre-school library and refurbishing the dormitories.

To get things underway headteacher Peter Phillips and teachers Andy Shepherd, Trevor Bayley and Jake Kempton are undertaking the mammoth sponsored walk from Land's End to John O'Groats.

Hoping to cover around 30 miles per day, one pair will start from Land's End and one from John O'Groats on Friday. They aim to meet back at Cundall a week later.

As well as the school's own appeal some of the proceeds will also go to Martin House Hospice at Boston Spa.

A further fund-raising event for the appeal is planned for the day of the group's return, when a whole-school sponsored walk and tea will be held.

It will also raise money for schools in northern India, where a group of senior pupils will spend two weeks in July working and trekking around the area.

Chair of the governor Sir Thomas Ingilby said: "We are hoping to reach our £1m appeal target over the next three years and, given the growing popularity of the school, we are extremely optimistic that this will be the case.

"It's amazing how the numbers have risen in recent years - from 68 to 360 in less than a decade. This makes Cundall the fastest-growing school of its type in the north of England."