Charities / Community

‘Charity’, as the voluntary support of the community and those less fortunate than ourselves, is a concept enshrined in The Prep’s ‘Way of Life’. Pupils are encouraged to take an active part in supporting our school community with activities such as litter picking, and our Buddy relationships established between Year 7 and Year 2 pupils.

Every two years, the whole school community, from Year 1 upwards take part in an election to choose the School’s charities for the following two years. Hustings take place with members of Year 8 championing each nomination. A secret ballot is held with the count being held in public – as close to a real election as is possible.

In 2024, the charities elected were WWF (World Wildlife Fund) as our international charity and Friends for Families (a Sevenoaks based charity helping families with anything from furniture to school uniform) as our local charity.

In addition to our main elected charities, we support various organisations such as food collections for Sevenoaks Larder, a local food bank and The Salvation Army through an annual Christmas toy collection.

We support pupil-led initiatives such as selling sunflower seeds for Ukraine, wearing yellow for mental health day or providing football kit for The Phoenix Football Academy in Ghana.

Internationally, The Prep has a long-term relationship with two charities; Haller and We See Hope. These charities both run schools and education units in Kenya and South Africa. Over the 15+ years that we have had the connection with these charities, staff have visited the schools and, apart from finance, we have supplied them with books, uniforms, stationery and sports kits.