Charities and Community

There are a number of one-off annual events which take place throughout the school year. These include the Macmillan Coffee Morning, the Culford 5km Challenge (supporting Riverwalk School), Remembrance Day, the Culford Charity Restaurant (Kailash Bodhi School, India), Carol Service Collection (Action for Children) and the ‘C’ Rock Music Concert (Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy).

There are also five non-uniform days, when pupils pay £1 to wear their casual clothes. The Charities Committee selects the charities to be supported on these days.

Pupils also have the chance to support charities on their own initiatives, for example by arranging a sponsored walk, cake sale or donating their hair.

House Events

Culford Senior School’s four houses, Cornwallis, Fitzgerald, Edwards and Jocelyn, each hold their own charity events, centered on the annual House Concerts. Each house can therefore support smaller, often Suffolk based charities.

Malawi 

Every July since 2009, a group of Lower Sixth pupils and teachers have travelled to Malawi for three weeks to carry out voluntary work in ‘the warm heart of Africa’. The work involves building classrooms and teachers’ accommodation at two village schools, providing materials and resources for several children’s homes and visiting other projects funded by the money raised by our pupils.

Mr Andrew Deane (Culford Head of Modern Languages) taught in Malawi for a number of years before coming to Culford, and his experience of Malawian culture and politics has enabled us to build strong links with one of the poorest developing countries in the world.

Kailash Bodhi School

During a Culford Expedition to the Himalayas in 1999, the pupils and teachers involved visited Kailash Bodhi School in northern India. The school had been running for ten years, providing basic teaching for children of Tibetan descent who had no right to education in India. Culford’s group stayed for a few days, helping out with teaching and general building maintenance.

On their return to Culford, the pupils were keen to set up a scheme to provide regular income for Kailash Bodhi School. Several initiatives were launched, and the main contributor since been the Charity Restaurant, held in November each year, where pupils act as ‘front of house’ serving a delicious three-course meal to guests in Culford Hall.