PUPILS and staff from Shiplake College raised almost £20,000

PUPILS and staff from Shiplake College raised almost £20,000 for completing a sponsored walk along the Thames Path.

More than 400 pupils and staff took part in the event for Gap-Africa, where they are supporting schoolchildren in Kenya.

The event was postponed twice because of flooding on the towpath in September and early March.

The distance depended on the year group, with sixth formers completing 18.4 miles, year 11 walking 16 miles, years 9 and 10 covering 12.7 miles and years 7 and 8 tackling 12 miles.

The route followed the River Thames from Moulsford, passing through Goring, Pangbourne, Reading and Sonning before finishing at Shiplake. Year groups joined at different points of the course.

Together participants raised £19,561, more than £800 higher that the 2022 event.

A group of nine sixth-form pupils challenged themselves to run the course in its entirety.

Year 13 pupils Alfie Malcolm and Josh Barnes chose to run together and finished in a time of two hours and 27 minutes.

Alfie, 18, from Peppard, beat his time in 2022 by 10 minutes. He said: “Josh and I ran the whole way together. We were trying to push ourselves to extreme limits. We were chatting along the way and it was a lovely day out.

“Going into Pangbourne was quite difficult as there are a few hills just before you reach the village but the course was mostly flat and the weather was as good as it could have been. Once we came up to the school, a load of teachers came and congratulated us.”

Josh Barnes, 18, who rows for the college, said: “It was a really nice occasion to do a whole school walk and the route along the Thames Path is spectacular.

“I had the fitness ability to run the course due to all my rowing training, at nearly three-quarters of a marathon. It was a good challenge to myself to keep up with Alfie.

“By the third or fourth mile, I already had sore feet so it was about keeping my legs moving rather than how fast I was going.

“It was great to see some of the teachers marshalling, giving us a big cheer on the route.

The funds support the college’s 30-year link with the charity and their house sponsorship of eight pupils in schools in the Kikunduku area of Kenya, as well as building developments and provision of clean drinking water.

Headmaster Tyrone Howe said: “Doing this event means the pupils have all had a collective experience and it’s an opportunity for us to do something together and for them to engage in the wider community

“We will have pupils who are leaving school in June who will remember having done this walk two, five or seven years ago and it’s one of those memories they will take away.”