Schools collects Christmas gifts for disadvantaged children

THE Oratory School in Woodcote collected Christmas gifts for disadvantaged children.

The independent school was responding to an appeal by the Catholic Children’s Society for presents for pupils at 73 schools across London.

The school’s charity committee gathered specific gifts for 116 children and 57 families, such as board games, Barbie dolls and footballs.

Oyinade Bakare, 16, a member of the committee, said: “Events like these are a great way of expressing our Catholic values.

“We often choose charities which we believe can have a big impact on a lot of people, such as Water Aid and Launchpad.”

Greg Brister, 40, a former pupil and now trust and grants officer at the charity, said: “Unfortunately, we have seen the needs of families go up and up over the years for reasons such as covid and the cost of living crisis.

“You have all these children at the Oratory looking forward to Christmas but for those who are disadvantaged it’s a huge source of stress and anxiety for the parents because they feel like they are failing.

“Things like the gift appeal mean that for a lot of those children they can have a really different Christmas to the one they were going to have.

“It’s really powerful for the children and families knowing that there are people out there who care and want to support them. The gesture is as important as showing how much they care.”

The charity supports about 10,000 disadvantaged children and families across London, Hertfordshire and the South-East and works with individuals of all faiths.

Pictured, left right, Oyinade Bakare, Alejandro Dohnai Jessop, 16, Reyes Fal-Conde, 17, Mr Brister and Rocco Heathsore, 13.