Charities

‘Whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers, you do unto me’  Matt 25:40

Charitable works are, of course, a cornerstone of Christian life and here at St George we have a long tradition of this being a central part of school life.

Firstly, the school over the years has supported a number of Catholic charities. These include CAFOD, Aid to the Church in Need, and the Sisters of St Charles in Kenya.  Staff and students have fund-raised in a variety of ways, including non-uniform days, cake sales and pancake sales, sponsored events including London Marathon sponsors for CAFOD . We are currently on a toilet twinning campaign for the Tear Fund, twinning our school toilets so those in poorer parts of the world can have the use of one.

The school has also helped fundraise for Marys Meals and each October, with the help of the kitchen staff, runs the world porridge days. This gives students a chance to experience what life is like when your main meal is a bowl of porridge, as well as raise money.

In recent years, in March, the school has celebrated a day in honor of St Oscar Romero by fund-raising for the afternoon. During this event, students and staff run various stalls in order to raise money. Last year, £1500 was raised in an afternoon for CAFOD.

The school also has a long-running relationship with the Poitier Food Bank based at St Josephs in Ashurst. We regularly ask students for donations and then deliver the food to the food bank. We are also referrers of families to the food bank, helping some of our families in difficult economic times.

As well as these, we also regularly hold some non-uniform days for charities, such as Breast Cancer research and anti-bullying charities. These two areas affect students and staff in different ways, and they are popular fund-raisers with our community.

St George has always been happy to respond to a crisis, whether that be a typhoon in the Philippines or famine in the Horn of Africa. We have been able to respond as a community quickly.

One such crisis we have been involved with recently was the Ukraine situation. Two of our staff members helped to organise the huge collection in Southampton from the Polish club to Ukraine back in Spring. This later evolved to helping Ukrainian war refugees being supported upon their arrival in Southampton. In addition, collections were made in school for this cause.   In 2024 St George raised £553.93 for the charity WOSP to fund hospital equipment for Poland. 

Over the years, the St Vincent De Paul society has played a role in the lives of some students. This group, which has recently been restarted, has once again  been given the green light to visit local people in care homes in the Portswood area, something that was common place before Covid. Our choir would also go at Christmas to sing carols to the residents.

These are just some examples of the work we are involved in and encourage our students to get involved, as we believe that loving the poor is loving Jesus.