Sleep Out

Last Friday, 18 girls from Year 11 and 12 slept out on what turned out to be a cold but dry night in order to raise awareness and funds for the Cardinal Hume Centre in London, which supports people who are homeless.

We began our evening by reflecting on what a home is, and what it provides us with, and shared our thoughts with each other. Then we set up the area where we would be sleeping by raiding the recycling for cardboard and laying it down for warmth in front of the Mayfield Chapel, where we hoped we would not get rained on. Once everything was set up we went to the school dining room at the end of supper time to see what was left over that we could eat. The girls had no choice over the food that was offered – thankfully it was pizza night! The girls then went on a hunt for firewood for the fire pit that we were very kindly able to borrow, which kept everyone warm. At that point we had two very welcome visitors from the Upper Sixth who led us in some karaoke with their portable speaker, thoroughly entertaining us. Card games were played, and we kept moving as much as possible to keep warm.

At about 11pm we did some fun exercises to warm up enough to get into our sleeping bags and try to get some sleep. Luckily the weather was kind to us, and it stayed dry, and we did manage to sleep a little... despite the cold. The girls were incredibly resilient and positive throughout. We were very pleased the next morning to enjoy a full English breakfast thanks to our wonderful catering staff here at Mayfield, and of course our own homes and warm beds on Saturday night.

Thank you to all those generous supporters of the event, which raised £2,435 in total. Thank you also to Harriet, Rachel, Mr Doy, Miss Starr and Miss Staunton who visited us throughout the evening to keep our spirits up.

Mrs Gaelle McGovern, Head of Religious Studies