Armed with steely determination, a strong sense of social justice and ‘creative budgets’, the Year Sixes at St Margaret’s Primary School in Maribyrnong are just one of the many schools who’ve worked to tackle poverty together with us this year.
The Melbourne school raised a mammoth $1,773 for Oxfam Australia at the school’s annual Mini Fete. Year Six students blended classroom activities with event management to create market stalls with loads of fun activities and products for their local community to buy, raising money from Oxfam Australia in the process.
“The Mini Fete has been a tradition for St Margaret’s Primary School for a long time,” said Year Six student Marcus. “Each year all of the Year Six students come together and choose a couple of charitable organisations, and do our best to raise as much money as possible. It’s quite a bit of work, but it’s worth it because we get to give it to an awesome charity like Oxfam.”
“St Margaret’s chose Oxfam because they help give heaps of people hope and support, and we thought about all the people that are in need,” students Isabelle H and Bianca told us.
The students at St Margaret’s are committed tackling poverty from within their school community. “At St Margaret’s Primary School we think it is very important to help others in any way we can,” said Odessa.
The fundraising event also allowed students to develop their creativity, financial responsibility, teamwork and entrepreneurial skills. “In my opinion, the most difficult bit was thinking of what stalls would make the most income,” said Harri. “There are a lot of activities that are fun, but we had to know our crowd, and to think of what they love to do the most.”
“Then we thought about budgets because we all needed to make stalls that were cheap, but attractive,” Rachel and Laura said. “We Year Sixes are very creative when it comes to budgeting.”
As Sofia said, “The best bit about the mini-fete was working with my team, having fun and raising money. Everyone had fun, I wish we had more opportunities like this.”
Joe Manger, Oxfam Australia’s Corporate and Community Partnerships Coordinator, spoke at the school’s assembly in October to accept the donation. “The students at St Margaret’s did a fantastic job of raising for funds for Oxfam’s work to tackle poverty,” he said.
“The students’ enthusiasm and dedication to support communities impacted by poverty was great to see, and Oxfam is lucky to have such passionate supporters.”
“It was a privilege for us to be able to present the cheque,” said students Khushi and Lexi. “As we were giving the cheque, we were also giving people in poverty food, water and maybe even education.”
The students were all extremely proud of their achievements, Isabelle E said, and wanted to tell other kids who wanted to do something similar to take action: “It really isn’t that much work for us, considering the fact that there are people in this world who are struggling to find food and clean water every day of their life.
“It’s definitely worth it as it’s a good experience for both the school, us as Year Sixes to plan and host, and of course helps give others the life they deserve.”
NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!
Inspired by St Margaret’s and want to help tackle poverty and inequality at your school?
We want your time taking action with Oxfam to be as meaningful, successful and fun as possible. So we’ve developed some new student and teacher fundraising guides. They’re our one-stop-shop for fundraising with maximum impact!
These guides will help you involve everyone, make sure everyone understands why they’re raising money and where it goes, and explore educational best practice.
Get your Oxfam Fundraising Guide
Oxfam’s Schools Fundraising Guide is our one-stop-shop for students and teachers to fundraise with maximum impact! These guides will help you involve everyone, make sure everyone understands why they’re raising money and where it goes, and explore educational best practice.
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