Today we are in South London where our Head of Communications Luke Upton caught up with Alice Luxmoore ( @KenderSBM ) , School Business Manager at Kender School to learn more about how they are using Localgiving to celebrate a very exciting milestone.

Luke Upton (LU): Thanks for the time today Alice, could you please tell our readers a little about Kender School and the community you serve.

Alice Luxmoore (AL): No problem Luke, Kender ( @KenderSchool ) is a two form entry primary school in New Cross in one of the most deprived areas of Lewisham. We serve a rich and diverse community: 40 different languages are spoken by the children in. our school.

LU: In June, you’ll be celebrating your 150th birthday, how proud is the school to reach this milestone?

AL: We're very proud to be continuing the long tradition set when our school opened in 1874. We're now on the third version of our school: the original school was rebuilt in 1931 and doubled in size in 2010. We aim to mark this anniversary by looking to the future. 

LU: You’ve got an appeal currently open with Localgiving to fundraise for your 150th, what have you got planned?

AL: We are changing the entrance to our school to another street which will be closed off to traffic so that our children and our families can come and go in complete safety. The new entrance will have mosaics on the pillars welcoming all our families to our school to match the current mosaic panels we have on the front entrance. We want to create an archive called Voices of Kender when our alumni are interviewed about their life at our school by our current children.

We want to show what's changed and what's the same and also ask our children what they think our school will be like in 150 years. We're holding an open day on our actual birthday so we can plant a black gum tree which has a lifespan of 150-300 years to provide shade and shelter for our children now and in the future.  We have one lady aged 93 who is coming over specially from France to revisit our school. She's been an important mine of information for us for our research for information graphics showing how our school and the area our families live in have changed over the years and we can't wait to interview her in person.

LU: Sounds fantastic, how important is the support you received from Localgiving?

AL: The support we have received from Localgiving has made the job of claiming GiftAid so much easier. Already the funds we have raised are 25% higher than they could have been without this assistance.  In terms of creating a page, whenever I got stuck, the online support was really helpful. Thank you!

LU: Funding aside, what would most help you in 2024?

AL: Good publicity about our fundraiser would be fabulous! And we're hoping to reach out to as many alumni as possible. We really want to engage our community in what we hope will be an exciting project to engage our children's interest in their past and their future.

LU: Thank you, Alice, good luck for next month. And happy birthday!

---> To learn more about Kender School and support their birthday celebrations, click their Localgiving page here