Sport Relief Guide for School Councils
Use this simple school council guide to help you organise a brilliant fundraising event for Sport Relief 2008.
You’ll also find all the resources you need online or you can order a fantastic school kit right here.
1. Check with your teacher
Before you start to plan your Sport Relief fundraising activity at school, make sure your teachers know all about it. You can use our handy letter to fill them in on your plans - just add a few details and it’s ready to go.
2. Set a date
Decide when you would like to hold your fundraising event and check with your school office to make sure nothing else is planned for the same day.
3. Choose your challenge
You can come up with your own sporty challenge or be inspired by our huge selection of ideas. They are suitable for different ages and abilities, can be done indoors and outdoors ranging from really big challenges to lots of small ones. We’ve also got great advice to make sure your activity is safe and legal; perhaps ask a teacher to look through this with you. click here.
4. Organise your team
Once you’ve chosen your challenge, you’ll need to draw upon the strengths of everyone within your school council to help you plan and organise your Sport Relief event. To do this, set up teams that are responsible for different parts of your activity. Here are some ideas –
- Event Planning Team – This is the team for people who love organising activities. Team members need to be good at planning when and where the event will happen, telling everyone what’s going on and making decisions.
- Finance Team – The members of this team will have a passion for numbers. They’ll plan how the money will be raised, how it will be collected and work with the staff to decide how the money will be sent to Sport Relief.
- Marketing Team – Students in this team will have to be imaginative and creative, as they’ll be in charge of telling the whole school about your Sport Relief activity. If a member of your school council is good at art, get them to design posters. If there’s a chatterbox amongst you, they can shout loudly about your plans in your school assembly, and if there’s an aspiring journalist, they can write an article for the school magazine or even write to your local paper to tell them exactly what you’re up to for Sport Relief 2008.
5. Order Socks
Make sure your school looks the part with the Sport Relief Socks. They’re also a great way to raise money, since each pair costs just £2 with at least £1 going to Sport Relief. Use the Sock Deposit Scheme order form to get Socks for your school – it’s very easy but remember you’ll need some help from a teacher or school finance officer click here (The Socks might be a bit baggy for the under-5s!).
6. Raising the money
Think about how much money you want to raise and aim to reach that target. To do this, get the Finance Team to estimate how many people will be taking part and how much money they are each likely to raise. So, for example, if there are 300 students taking part and you’re asking them to pay £1 to come to school dressed as their favourite football player, you can set a target of £300. The Finance Team will also need to plan the following:
- How the money will be raised e.g. by getting sponsored or by getting people to pay to take part in your activity.
- How the money will be collected securely - e.g. with a collection bucket in reception or get a member of the school council to collect it during registration.
7. Work out your target
Remember, all your fundraising efforts will help change people’s lives for the better. Check out our useful online calculator to help you work out your target – it even tells you how your money could be spent, click here.
8. Tell everyone
This is a perfect job for the Marketing Team - spread the word about Sport Relief in your school and tell them when your event is happening. Here’s how:
- Use our posters - these can be found in your schools kit or download them here
- Tell your local newspaper - use our fantastic press release,
- Hold an assembly – use the DVD in the schools kit or use one of our scripts! click here (you’ll probably need help from a teacher)
Make sure everyone knows why they are getting involved in your activity and how their money can make a difference. Use our ‘squad poster’ or click here for more info.
9. Plan and hold your event
This is where the Event Planning Team comes in. They’ll need to decide the exact timings of your event and where it’s going to be held. Remember, if there are lots of people at your event, you need lots of space (and toilets too!). This team will need to know what everyone should be doing on the day and get extra help or equipment if it’s needed. The team might find it useful to have a look at our advice on keeping events safe and legal. Perhaps ask a teacher to look through this with you, click here. If you’re holding a sponsored activity, everyone will need sponsorship forms too, click here. For the event itself, it might be nice to give everyone a sticker; these can be found in your schools kit or download some more, click here.
10. Thank everyone
Once it’s all over, thank everyone and give yourself a big pat on the back! Then relax and watch a brilliant weekend of TV on BBC ONE from 7pm on Friday 14th March.
11. Pay your money in
This is vital! Don’t forget to send us the money you’ve raised so that we can start spending it to change lives!
- Complete the giro slip in the Schools Kit (if you haven’t got a Schools Kit you can order one here.
- Take the giro slip along when you pay in your money by cash or cheque at any bank.
- If you want to post a cheque, please make it payable to 'Sport Relief 2008 (Schools)' and send it with your giro slip to Sport Relief 2008 (Schools), Ernst and Young, PO Box 51543, London SE1 2UG. Using the schools’ giro slip to pay your money in will ensure you are automatically sent a thank you certificate, so don't forget your giro!
- If you have lost your schools’ giro slip, drop us an e-mail to schools@sportrelief.com, with your name, the name of your school, your school’s address and we’ll make sure you get sent your very own giro slip. Remember using the schools’ giro slip to pay your money in will mean you are automatically sent a thank you certificate!
And finally, we’d love to hear what you’re up to, so if you want to tell us about your event please email us at schools@sportrelief.com