Halloween mufti, the pumpkin carving competition and Swimathon are all back in the calendar. For Harrodians, it all adds up to an October Fun and Fundraising Fest.
Halloween is the perfect occasion for pupils to do all the things they love - to dress up, be creative and help others by raising money for charity. This year pupils of all ages were buzzing with excitement as they arrived at school in Halloween fancy dress, as part of a special fundraising mufti day.
For more Halloween mufti costume pictures
For a payment of £2, all Harrodians (staff too!) were allowed to don their spookiest costumes and for an additional amount they were able to pre-order Halloween toffee apples too. The money raised will be donated to City Harvest and Listening Place.
Prep pupils were also invited to take part in the annual house pumpkin carving competition. Run as an optional house challenge, the addition of a Halloween mufti on the same day, added to the levels of excitement.
Teachers were also game to dress up - any excuse to have fun alongside their pupils!
Meanwhile our Prefects hung decorations around the school, dressed up as Halloween cats and surprised our Pre-Prep pupils by appearing at their classroom windows.
The winner of the pumpkin competition, Ella (10s), earned points for Ferry house with her 'Day of the Dead' pumpkin (featured above with her Head of House Mr Greenberg). In second place, Eloise (12s - Ferry) was awarded for her pumpkin covid testing centre (above) and third place went to Beau (8s - Bridge) for his 'Let's make the world a better place,' pumpkin statement on climate change. Overall Ferry is in the lead (1148 points), Thames is second (1009 points), then Bridge (977 points) and Lonsdale (974 points).
To view more photos of Halloween pumpkin and the runners up /winners
Another fun event to take place in October was the annual Swimathon. All year groups were able to participate by swimming lengths in either their sport or PE lessons or in break times. Staff and parents were also able to swim before and after school. Together everyone hit the target by swimming 51.3 miles - the distance that 55 competitors swim in an Olympic Triathlon.
The Senior Prefect team, in particular our Charity and Media Prefects, promoted and organised the event making sure all lengths were counted and sponsorship forms distributed and they were assisted by our PE team. Head of Seniors Captain Rob Stewart showed his support too, managing to find time between meetings and lessons to swim 36 lengths of the pool!
There were some tremendous individual and team efforts, with some pupils and staff swimming over 100 lengths each and raising nearly £300 individually. An impressive total of £2,600 was raised and donated to the Save the Children Afghanistan Emergency Fund.
A big thank you to everyone for their efforts and generosity. Both events were a great way to appreciate the power of the Harrodian community pulling together.