Hampstead Hill School raises £1200 for Pigs4Kids charity campaign

Hampstead Hill pupils, from left: Oskar Gershfield, 7, Lily Taylor, 5, and William Taylor, 7. Picture: Nigel Sutton.

by Tim Lamden Saturday, February 9, 2013
2:00 PM

Pupils at a Hampstead infant school have managed to raise £1,200 in just three months to support a school for children with special needs in Swiss Cottage.

How to get your Pigs4Kids piggy bank:

1. Collect a pig from Swiss Cottage School Development and Research Centre, the Ham&High’s office, the O2 Centre’s management offices OR email info@pigs4kids.org to request a pig and we will post one to you.

2. Put the pig in a prominent place in your home or in your place of business, learning or worship

When your pig is full:

1. Return it to one of the collection points.

2. If it’s more convenient, count what you have collected and post a cheque for the amount to Friends of Swiss Cottage School, 80 Avenue Road, London, NW8 6HX

3. Make an online donation at our JustGiving page: http://www.justgiving.com/fscs

4. Make an online donation on our website at www.pigs4kids.org

5. Make a text donation by texting PIGS04 to 70070

Staff at Hampstead Hill School, in Pond Street, returned a cheque for the impressive amount to the Ham&High offices this week in support of the newspaper’s Pigs4Kids campaign.

Our campaign is aiming to raise £60,000 for the new Swiss Cottage School Development and Research Centre, in Adelaide Road.

Hampstead Hill, the first school to pledge its support for the campaign, only began fundraising three months ago after receiving their two Pigs4Kids piggy banks last October.

Deputy headteacher Alexa Greayer said: “We had a Christmas market and the kids have done jobs at home to fill the piggy banks up.

“At the Christmas market we had some kids go around with the pigs and we had a little Christmas card-making stall where all the money raised went towards Pigs4Kids.

“I did an assembly last term where I talked to the children about Swiss Cottage School and then they all went off home and raised the money.

“The new school looks amazing and it’s great to see the children in there. I think it would be nice for some of our pupils to visit the school.”

Like the Hampstead Hill pupils, Torriano Junior School pupil Miller Hales has been finding a different use for his pocket money since the launch of our Pigs4Kids campaign.

Miller Hales, seven, adopted two of our plastic pigs, promptly named them “Ham” and “High”, and then filled them with loose change to raise £30 for the Swiss Cottage school.

“I read all about the school and I decided to put some of my pocket money towards it rather than spending it all on football cards,” said Miller, who is encouraging other children to adopt a pig and donate some of their pocket money.

So far, our campaign has attracted the support of a number of local businesses and high-profile personalities, including education secretary Michael Gove and film star Kevin Spacey.