Amazing Playground Upgrades!
Thanks to a generous donation from Lynda Griffin in honour of her grandson Lewis and the hard work of a team of volunteers from Santander Consumer Finance and Splash Community Projects, our playground has had some substantial upgrades!
There is a new outdoor stage, lots of fun play equipment, lots of new shelters to protect our outdoor areas from the elements and a new outdoor learning space too.
We held a special opening ceremony at the end of the Summer Term when the facilities were officially opened by Lewis himself!
Darts Donate Dosh!
We would like to say a huge thank you to the Horsham Darts League who have again raised money for our school. H&W Dart League, Southwater Summer Dart League, Horsham 5's Dart League, H&W Pentathalon and Southwater Sports Club have raised an amazing £5000 between them.
PTFA at HFC!
We would like to say a big thank you to Horsham Football Club for inviting our PTFA to attend their match and fundraise on Saturday 23rd March. They raised a brilliant £231.07 for the school.
Musical Friends at Southwater Day Nursery
Thank you to
Southwater Day Nursery who held a Musical Friends session on Monday 5th February to raise money for our new outdoor library.
Fund Raising Wine!
A big thank you to Bellmans Auctioneers who recently auctioned off 528 bottles of wine that had been donated to QEII by William Reed, from the International Wine Challenge. The International Wine Challenge is one of the world's most rigorous, impartial and influential wine competitions so we were thrilled to receive this donation, which raised over £1300 for our school.
Plants from Lucy Newman & Horsham Community Fridge
Thank you to Lucy Newman from
Horsham Community Fridge for donating lots of lovely plants to brighten up our new Meeting Room!
Raffle Prizes from Mulberry Bush
A big thank you to local toy supplier
Mulberry Bush for their donation of toys for our PTFA's Summer Raffle.
Computers from Feri's Fix
We would like to say a big Thank You to
Feri's Fix computer repair service for their donation of refurbished laptop and desktop computers to our school. We are always in need of more ICT resources and these will help keep our classes fully equipped.
Darts Deliver Dosh!
A massive thank you to the local darts clubs who teamed up to raise an amazing £4500 for the school, which will be put to good use funding our new outside reading library.
The clubs were: H&W Dart League, Southwater SDL, Horsham 5's Dart League, H&W Pentathlon and Southwater Sports and Social Club.
Many thanks to Terry Thornton and Southwater Sports & Social Club Chair Neil Harding, along with everyone at all the clubs and leagues who contributed.
Terry Thornton presenting the cheque here at school to Headteacher Helen Elphick (r) and Operations Manager Pip Allen.
Emily Jones, class teacher from Balloonists Class, with (l-r) Pete Botting, Neil Harding, Tony Harris, Andy Mason & Matt Peskett
Lloyds Matched Funding
Thank you to Anil Ahluwalia, who organised a golf day at Rookwood Golf Club in Horsham. This raised £250 and Lloyds Bank’s matched funding programme matched this with another £250, taking to total to a fantastic £500.
New Playground Spinning Bowl from PTFA
The QEII PTFA raised over £2100 for the school so that we could add a second "spinning bowl" to the playground for students to enjoy at breaktimes.
If you would like to join our PTFA to help support their work, or you have a connection to a business who might be able to help us, please contact our Operations Manager, Pip, who can be reached via the School Office.
Cottesmore Golfers 100 Holes in a Day!
A determined trio from Cottesmore Golf & Country Club set off at first light on Thursday, 7th July, to complete an epic round of 100 holes of golf in a single day. Teeing off at 4.30am Thursday were Iain McKay (Club Captain), Alan Greig (Vice Captain) and Steve Grouwstra (Director of Golf). They finally finished their round of golf at 8pm to a round of applause and a standing ovation from the crowd that had gathered to cheer them in. The challenge was in aid of the Captain’s Charity, the QEII Silver Jubilee special needs school in Horsham.
For most a round of golf takes about four hours for eighteen holes before heading to the "nineteenth" for a well-earned drink or two, to reward or commiserate their performance on the course.
Speaking about the day Iain said “I think this will really hurt tomorrow, but what a fantastic day. The support at the club has been amazing for my charity this year. We're only half way through the golfing year and with today's event already raising over £1,000 it means that we've already hit the full year target. At the start of the year we spoke to the school and asked them what they really needed and they identified some sensory learning equipment that they had hoped to purchase for £7,500. I'm so happy that this equipment can now be bought, but we'll need to see what else the school needs as we have another 6 months of fundraising for them to do!"
QEII head teacher Helen Elphick was delighted by the success of the event. “We are thrilled to have been chosen as Cottesmore’s Captain’s Charity for this year. Their generous fundraising will enable us to purchase this much needed sensory equipment to support the development and learning of our students.”
H & W Darts League Donation
A big thank you to the H & W Darts League, who raised £1200 for us in donations from their members with their competition entry fees in the 2021/22 season.
First Central Group Laptops Donation
We are delighted to have received a donation of twenty-five laptops from First Central Group, to boost our ICT resources across the whole school. This has enabled us to replace all the older laptops from the school "laptop trolley" that all classes share, as well as replacing some of the oldest (and most worn out) computers in classes across the whole school.
Thank you First Central for this very generous gift!
Wooden Spoon Pirate Ship Official Opening!
We are delighted to receive a “Pirate Ship” for our playground, thanks to the fundraising efforts of Sussex Wooden Spoon, the children’s charity of rugby. After having had to reschedule the official opening of the climbing frame and play area a number of times due to COVID, the official presentation by Bob Rogers, Honorary President of Sussex Wooden Spoon, took place on Friday 5th November.
After an opening speech by Sussex Wooden Spoon Chair Sandy Flemming, Bob recalled his previous visits to QEII, including the donation of special sensory equipment for our hydrotherapy pool over a decade ago, and unveiled a plaque commemorating the opening of the Pirate Ship. The two-level ship has a climbing wall, rope net ladder, stepladder and a slide and has level access on the ground for wheelchair users.
Our head teacher Helen said “We are incredibly grateful for all the support from Wooden Spoon over so many years. The new Pirate Ship has been a huge hit with our students who enjoy using it at playtimes and for PE activities too.”
As part of the opening, we also had a special “Pirate Day” with many students and staff dressing up in appropriate costumes and taking part in nautical themed activities throughout the day, leading up to the presentation in the afternoon. Members of our Student Council also presented the Wooden Spoon guests with a framed photo display of us enjoying the Ship at playtimes.
Rebecca runs a marathon for QEII!
Rebecca, aged 8, whose brother attends QEII raised almost a thousand pounds for us by completing a marathon in a team with her Dad. He ran the Run Barns Green half marathon and she completed the other half, broken down into smaller runs at Horsham ParkRun and in the evenings. She came to school to present Helen with a cheque for the money she raised. You can find out more - and support her further if you wish - on her
GoFundMe page by
clicking here.Thank you Rebecca!
More support from Horsham Golf Club
It was lovely to have a visit from the Horsham Ladies Golf Club on Wednesday 26th February, after they've raised so much money for us as their Charity of the Year 2019/20. The total raised is yet to be announced but we're delighted with how much the year has benefited our students.
Holbrook Club put on The Greatest Show!
Thank you to the Holbrook Club in Horsham, whose Greatest Showman themed evening of live music in December 2019 raised over £500 for us.
Thousands from Horsham Golf and Fitness!
A huge thank you to Horsham Golf and Fitness, who have had QEII as their chosen charity for the 2019/20 season. They recently presented us with a cheque for over £2200, with more to come as their fundraising year runs until next March.
PTFA at Tesco
Thank you to the members of the QEII PTFA who took part in a bucket collection at Tesco in Broadbridge Heath on Sunday 22nd September 2019 - and thank you to everyone who donated!
They raised almost £150 for us.
Quiz Night Success
Thank you to everyone who attended our Quiz Night on Friday 10th May 2019. We raised £700 towards new playground equipment for the school.
Garden Improvements thanks to Tesco
A big thank you to Tesco's "Bags of Help" scheme (administrated by
Groundwork) for their grant of £2000 for our "Gated Garden" project.
Thank you too to everyone who voted for us with their tokens instore.
The money has gone towards tree surgery and groundwork needed to level the garden of Oaks and Firs, providing much improved wheelchair access. We're looking forward to making the most of the garden space as the weather starts to improve this Spring.
Running Rosie Returns!
Rosie, the teacher in Elms class, teamed up with Imogen from her class and Stuart, one of the Elms parents, to run the Worthing 10K on June 3rd. Together with friends they raised an awesome
£495. You can add to their sponsorship total by following this JustGiving link:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/run4qeii
Thank you Rosie, Imogen & Stuart for your support.
Scottish Run for Marc Scott!
Marc Scott, nephew to our own Peter & Kay Tyler, ran the Edinburgh half-marathon on May 26th in aid of QEII School and raised a brilliant
£640. If you would help boost this total the JustGiving link is
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/marc-scotty.
Thank you Marc for your support.
Phil and Charlie's £1375 Marathon
Phil Hart, who is the uncle of two QEII students, and his friend Charlie ran the Brighton Marathon in aid of QEII on Sunday 15th April. They raised an amazing £1375 in sponsorship, a huge thank you to them from all of us.
Skydive Success!
Nathan Francis, brother of Leo in Palms Class, successfully completed a tandem skydive on April 15th 2018. He has raised £1000 in sponsorship for us, which we are delighted about. A sky-high thank you to Nathan from all of us at QEII!
Lovely Pharmacy Donation!
Thank you to Maggie and the team from Norries Pharmacy on Oakhill Road in Horsham, who raised £180 for us. It's brilliant to have such support from our local community.
Dean runs up £400 for QEII!
A big thank you to Dean Wright, who ran the Barns Green Half Marathon in aid of QEII and raised a brilliant £400 for us!
Dean celebrating his success!
Limeburners "Burnerfest" raises £2190 for school
Thank you to The Limeburners pub in Billingshurst for making us their nominated charity this year for their annual "Burnerfest" music festival. The weather was perfect for the day, which featured lots of live bands and also stalls, including a tombola and facepainting from QEII PTFA and snacks by our friends from Juby Lee Bakes.The day raised an amazing £2190 for us. Thank you to everyone who supported it.