Service & Charity

The school provides opportunities for children to experience the act of service and charity throughout their time at St. Nicholas. The school endeavours to teach children to understand the needs of individuals, the local community and the world. They are led to empathise and feel compassion for others. They are encouraged to then take action and make a difference. There are a variety of forums to help pupils follow this process. Some of them include:

• Class-based projects (including the PYP exhibition)
  Individual classes often reach a plan of action with direct curricular links. Examples of class-based projects include bake sales to raise money for rescue dogs who help find smuggled rainforest animals (Year 2), a sale of balls to raise money for PPP, a charity for disabled athletes and promotion of charities that work with the blind as well as disabled artists (Year 6).
• Student Council-led projects
  The student council organises campaigns to support a variety of different projects. In the past, projects have included donations to environmental organisations, providing school supplies to school and sodexo workers, fundraising for victims of the Peruvian earthquake, and many more.
• Visits to crèches and other charitable institutions
  As part of the International Baccalaureate Diploma programme, students make weekly visits to crèches and a cancer hospital. They prepare activities for the children and play with them.
• Whole school charity campaigns
  The school adopts one or more charities each year to provide on-going support. Links between pupils and the organisation are made. The 2008-2009 charity is Crèches Nova Esperança, a small day care centre for children five and under. In order to gain money to be able to do these campaigns, students participate in a number of fund raising activities including bake sales and swimathons.

On the last Friday of each month the whole school has a casual clothes day, when students and staff pay two reais to be able to 'dress down'. The money raised from this also goes towards to charity.