Fantastic fundraising and support

Friends @ Belmont, known in school as ‘F@B’, is a wonderful team of parents, carers and friends, working hard to raise funds to support pupils, families and staff at Belmont School – and having lots of fun at the same time!

We have a public Facebook page ‘Friends at Belmont – Warden Hill’, and also a private group for Belmont families called ‘Friends at Belmont Families’ – please do feel free to join, like and share online.

If anybody has any suggestions for fundraising, or family/carer get-togethers, or would like to join F@B please do get in touch either on Facebook or email us using the link below.

We are a lovely friendly group and any support anyone can provide – no matter how big or small – is always appreciated! All money raised goes back into our school which ultimately benefits our wonderful children.

These are just some of our most recent activities:

  • We have two fayres a year – Summer and Winter. Both are aimed at providing a cheap, fun afternoon for families whilst raising money for the school. We raised £2466.64 at our Summer Fayre and £1589.85 at our recent Winter Fayre. We have recently arranged the Christmas cards the children designed for families/carers to purchase, of which F@B gets paid commission.
  • We welcome any individual fund-raising activities such as an Easter egg/chick sale that a grandparent organised, and a few F@B members and teaching staff ran the Cheltenham half marathon in September 2024 raising over £1000.
  • In Autumn 2023 we donated £10,000 to school to help fund the school minibus but also donate £2,000 each Christmas to be spent across each key stage on equipment such as OPAL or cooking equipment, transport for school trips etc. We also part funded the recent Cinderella production in school and paid for the choirs amazing purple t-shirts.
  • We arrange for Father Christmas to come to school every year with a small gift for each child – and a chance to visit him if they want to.
  • We are now raising money to help fund equipment for the Senior School sensory room.
As well as raising money for the school – Friends at Belmont aims to bring parents/families together – we welcome anyone to come along and say hi at our next meetings – with no commitment required to volunteer for us in any way!
We are grateful for the continuing support of Morrisons’ and Asda’s community champions who do so much to help us make these events happen.

Do join us! We look forward to welcoming you!

Reg Charity 1172082

Fundraising and match-funding

We can raise even more money for school through match funding! If this is something that your employer offers, please do get in touch with us – it makes a huge difference.

These are just some of the organisations that offer matched funding – there are probably many more! Let us know!

Walking with Pilgrims - 776km along the Camino de Santiago

Our F@B Co-Chair Neil Rushen raised more than £2,200 for Belmont by walking the 776km Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage over the Pyrenees and across the top of Spain.

The students followed Neil’s progress on a map, and tuned into his daily entertaining video updates!  Neil’s Just Giving page is still live and can be accessed here:

Neil Rushen is fundraising for Belmont Special School (justgiving.com)

 

 

Read on for Neil’s story…

When Jacky started at Belmont Special School in September of 2021 he was largely non verbal and often didn’t seem to understand what was going on in the world outside of the bubble he was lost in.  As his parents, thoughts of Jacky’s future seemed quite bleak and we doubted he would ever be independent or lead a happy and fulfilled life.  But the changes we’ve seen over the last 18 months have been nothing short of miraculous.  With support from the school he now reads, has a bunch of great friends and always has a lot to say.  We were so grateful for the changes we saw that we wanted to give something back to the school.  

Initially I joined the Friends at Belmont PTA where I’m now co-Chair and alongside a great bunch of parents and carers we’ve been raising funds to help the school but I wanted to do something a little more personal… and that’s where I came up with the idea  of walking along The Way of St James, a journey taken by pilgrims since 950AD and maybe just saying “thank you” along the way.  Buen Camino!!

 

F@B at Drop-In Saturdays!

Keep an eye open for F@B at our monthly family drop-in sessions. They aim to be at most of our Saturday activity days, providing refreshments and cakes, and happy to chat about all things Belmont (and even how you can lend a hand with some fundraising!).

Annual General Meeting Information

The date for the next F@B's Annual General Meeting is yet to be decided, but will be held in Spring 2025 at school, and all are welcome. For information, the Agenda and Chairs' reports are posted below, together with the draft minutes of the last meeting:

AGM Minutes 12 April 2024

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DRAFT AGM Minutes 19-4-2023

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AGM 12-4-24 Agenda

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AGM Chairs Report 2023 12-4-24

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AGM Treasurer's Report 2023

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