Friday, September 28, 2012

Teaching News

Teaching News

Organise a special Christmas with Shelter

Posted: 27 Sep 2012 10:00 AM PDT

Christmas may seem a long time away, but many schools will be starting to plan their Christmas celebrations over the coming weeks.

Housing and homelessness charity Shelter is giving primary school teachers free resources to stage a school Christmas performance, in return for raising funds for Shelter to help 75,000 homeless children at Christmas. Shelter's materials provide a range of Christmas musicals for both Infants and Juniors, ranging from classics like carols and fairy tales to modern adaptations of old stories and popular Christmas songs. All the materials are free to order and easy to use. Teachers can listen to audio clips before they choose the musical and for schools with limited resources, the musicals include backing tracks so that the school doesn't even need to have a pianist.

Teachers planning Christmas plays in support of Shelter will also receive balloons, posters and collection boxes to make the event even more special, giving children the chance to make a difference to those who will wake up without a home on Christmas Day. All resources are available for download here.

For secondary school teachers, the charity has also launched 'Sleep for Shelter', an opportunity to take over the school hall for a night and raise funds for Shelter's work with families in housing need. Teachers can choose the type of event that they think will work best – from sponsored one-night-only sleepovers to paid-entry events – and Shelter will suggest plenty of entertaining activities to do during the night, as well as providing a how-to guide, fundraising materials and information about the charity. Teachers can find out more and sign up at www.shelter.org.uk/sleepforshelter.