Friends of Challoner – A Fantastic Year of Fundraising and Support

The past academic year has been an incredible one for the Friends of Challoner (FoC), and it’s all thanks to the amazing generosity and enthusiasm of our parents, staff, and wider school community. Together, we’ve not only raised vital funds but also seen those funds go straight back into projects that make a real difference to our children’s everyday school life.

Fundraising Success

In 2024/25, we raised an outstanding £61,000 across 19 different events and activities - a 27% increase on the previous year!

This success came from a wide variety of events and initiatives, including our ever-popular FoC Lotto, the Summer Serenade and Fun Day, our lively Bingo and Quiz Nights and supporting Challoner school events.

In addition, this year we signed up to easyfundraising and have generated almost £2,000 this year with little effort and no expense to our Friends. As we approach the Christmas season, please sign-up and help to raise even more as you do your usual shopping.

Our good as new uniform sales raised over £1,000 and helped to keep the cost of uniform down for many of our families. This can only happen with your help so please keep donating pre-loved uniform so that we can offer it to other families. There are drop-off boxes for uniform in the school reception so please ask your son to drop items off on their way in to school.

Every pound raised came from people coming together – whether buying a raffle ticket, joining us at an event, or supporting online initiatives – and every bit of it has gone or will go towards making school life better for our students.

Donations to the School

From the total raised, FoC donated almost £45,000 directly to the school, supporting a wide range of departments and therefore benefiting students across all year groups and interests.

Here are just some of the fantastic projects we’ve been able to fund together:

• An ULEZ-compliant minibus, ensuring students can continue to enjoy trips and sports fixtures across London and beyond
• A welcoming new Chaplaincy drop-in zone
• ProCreate licences for Art, giving students cutting-edge digital design opportunities
• A brazing hearth for Design & Technology, bringing industry-standard equipment into the classroom
• Stage screens for Drama, enhancing productions and performances
• A Geiger-Muller tube for Physics, strengthening science resources across the school
• The launch of a Robotics Club for Computer Science
• A residential trip for the Xavier Centre
• Upgrades to the Newman Yard, improving outdoor spaces for recreation
• Plus, countless smaller upgrades - from books to specialist equipment – that enrich everyday lessons

In addition, the remaining funds raised have been earmarked for the refurbishment of the mezzanine floor - an important project that will further enhance the school environment for our children.

Looking Ahead

We are so proud of what we’ve achieved together over the past year. The difference these funds have made can already be seen across the school, and with departments now submitting exciting new funding requests for the coming year, we’re ready to build on this success.

The calendar of events is already full of fun activities and we kick-start the year with a follow-up to last year’s black-tie Ball on Saturday 18th October 2025. Tickets on sale soon!

If you want to get involved or have a special interest that you want to share, please do sign-up to the Friends of Challoner mailing list to be kept up to date on what’s happening.

Thank you

And finally, a heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined in, donated, volunteered, or simply came along to enjoy one of our events. None of this would be possible without you – and together, we’re making Richard Challoner an even better place for our children to learn and grow.

Friends of Challoner