Fund-raising day was thirsty work

By Globe reporter Jennie Gill

Georgie Fletcher drenches Patrick Shepherd in Splosh, the branchild of Charlie Reeves, right. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 0559605)

RAISING money for charity is thirsty work, as St Andrew’s Primary School children found out.

Year 5 students belatedly celebrated World Water Day and raised money for the Water Aid charity and Tumaini fund on Thursday.

They have been studying water throughout the term in a variety of lessons including geography, maths and PSHE.

‘They have been preparing for this day for a couple of weeks and we have had fantastic support from all the parents,’ said deputy head teacher Linda Paley.

‘They have tried to relate everything to water as much as they could and all the prizes have been donated.’

Fund-raising activities on the day included car washing, apple bobbing, a raffle, colouring competition and a game called Name The Fish.

Charlie Reeves, 10, helped create Splosh, a game in which people paid to throw wet sponges at a student seated in a deck chair.

‘They have to try and hit the person in the chair and if they get their head or tummy, they win a prize,’ said Charlie.

Ben Roussel cleans a car as part of the World Water Day activities. (0559600)

‘The money will go to help people round the world. We have learnt that water is scarce and very precious in some countries and people have to travel miles to get dirty water when we just have to go to the tap to get clean water.’

The children also discovered how water is filtered in Guernsey and learnt about the water cycle process.

Students Sophia Ringham and Georgie Fletcher thought it would be fun to set up an apple-bobbing stand.

‘You have to dip your head in the water and if you get an apple with a silver or gold sticker, your name is put into the raffle,’ said 10-year-old Sophia.

Georgie, also 10, said watching a film about people in Third World countries had been the most upsetting part of learning about water.

‘The video said that in Third World countries every eight seconds a child dies because of water-related diseases, which we got quite upset about,’ she said. ‘We then sat in silence and counted to eight and when we finished our teacher said another child had just died.’

The students also completed a project on water around the world, many concentrating on the lack of it in Third World countries.