Our pupils and parents are incredibly charitable and think nothing of raising money for a myriad of good causes. As well as charity, they also hold the School community, local community and indeed many other communities, including those overseas, close to their hearts.
Ballard has links to a number of International Charities including the Dust Project in Sri Lanka, Unicef, and Médecins Sans Frontières. We even take part in the ‘Toilet-Twinning Scheme’, which helps those in desperate poverty to get clean water and sanitation.
Our biennial trip to Kenya is built on two years’ worth of fundraising by our pupils before they go to help the Kenyan people build schools, houses and infrastructure. One of our teachers also makes an annual trip to the Calais migrants with clothes, shoes and toiletries.
The Ballard family is often seen rallying round others in need. Hurricane Irma affected one of our families and there was an immediate call for aid and help for those affected with fundraising organised in a matter of days.
Our pupils believe that fundraising can be fun, especially the annual Santa Dash around Lymington, which raises money for the local Oakhaven Hospice. A team of Ballard pupils, parents, staff and alumni (and dogs!) take part in this fun event. Our choir also sings at their Christmas fundraiser to help raise funds.
Closer to home, we support war veterans with our permanent memorial, poppy appeal and remembrance service, whilst also joining our local community for their remembrance parades.
Every year our four School Houses select a charity to support. Fundraising can get competitive between Houses as they invent ingenious ways to raise money for their chosen charity. Each charity is invited to visit the School to inform the pupils about all the good work that they are helping to support. Pupils enjoy the many House events throughout the year which include sports, quizzes, vertical mentoring and the Apprentice competition.
There are many ways in which Ballard becomes involved in the community alongside all the charity work. We open our doors each year for our ‘Heritage Open Morning Scheme’ as well as running a series of Careers Lectures.
Our Music department regularly perform at the New Milton Music Festival, Christchurch Food Festival, Bournemouth Air Show, Christchurch Priory and Beaulieu Abbey.
They also provide a wonderful Christmas Community Concert in our Performing Arts Centre (PAC). We invite local care home residents and their carers for a morning of festive music performed by our pupils. Hot drinks and mince pies are served and the residents are encouraged to sing along.
Ballard is also a keen supporter of other local schools running a host of workshops for them including Drama, Maths, Music and our popular STEM days. Pupils had the chance to plan the perfect farm with our Maths department; create a moon house using midget gem sweets and tooth picks with Design Technology; create their own sparklers in Science; and rewrite the music for the John Lewis Christmas advert in our iMac suite.