Penny For The Guy?

If one takes a moment to think about it, Bonfire Night is something of a bizarre event. Imagine yourself explaining it from first principles to an alien: ‘Well, we celebrate a failed attempt on an English king’s life by constructing an effigy of the chief conspirator, and then immolating it in a mock public execution.’ Perhaps the alien’s mouth might be hanging open at this point. ‘Then we launch a salvo of explosive rockets into the sky. Pets hate it.’

One of England’s leading independent schools, however, added a philanthropic twist to the ceremony this year. Highfield and Brookham School in Liphook, Hampshire, decided to give back to the community by donating proceeds from sales of food and drink on the night – as well as cash donations from the community – to their charity Highfield Highreach Holidays. A remarkable £2100 was raised by the school community.

So what is Highfield Highreach Holidays? Well, it’s a charity set up in 2018 that offers residential holidays for children with physical and mental disabilities. Hosted at Highfield and Brookham school, it’s utterly committed to supporting local families – it runs for one week every August and the charity covers half of the cost of the residential holiday, making it one of few affordable residential respite holidays in the area.

The cost of these holidays is met by ongoing fundraising initiatives within the school community while a healthy group of volunteers, many of whom return year on year, including former pupils of Highfield and Brookham School, help keep costs down.

Suzannah Cryer, Head of Highfield and Brookham School, said she was ‘delighted’ by the amount of money raised by the fireworks for Highreach, adding that the school works hard to balance fundraising with the environmental and social impact of the annual pyrotechnics and bonfire.

‘Bonfire Night,’ says Cryer, ‘is always a popular date in the school calendar, for both our children and the wider community who come to join us, and this year was no exception.’

Traditionalist readers will be relieved to know that the expected bells and whistles of the holiday were still dutifully observed. The fireworks display was described as ‘spectacular’, and Waterloo House’s painstakingly constructed Guy won the annual house competition, and was consequently awarded the dubious honour of incineration atop the bonfire.

‘[But] the upshot was that we raised more than £2,000 for Highreach,’ continued Cryer. ‘The money will ensure that Highreach continues to give these inspiring children the opportunity to make memories that will last a lifetime.’