Two tutor groups have been given a very exciting project by The Smile Foundation – to upgrade a mug to something more valuable, purely via swapping with other people.
The project is linked to helping students create a pot of money for their classes to use for fundraising, and is based on the notable film One Red Paperclip, created by Canadian Kyle MacDonald who successfully swapped his way from a small paperclip to a house over the course of a year.
Tessa Wray from The Smile Foundation came in to talk to students about volunteer work and raising money for charity, and how it can be beneficial for them.
She said, “It’s great to raise money for a charity or give your time as a volunteer – it’s very useful for the organisations involved. In addition, adding this to your personal statement or profile can really make you stand out from the crowd when you start to apply for college and university.”
Tessa gave pairs of students a mug between them and they will now have a month to talk to friends, family and teachers to see what they could swap their mug for and how far they can go.
The aim of this is to give students the opportunity to see how they can create something bigger from a modest starting point, and hopefully to give them some items to sell so they have a pot of money to invest in raising further money for charity.
Year 7 & 8 students will be showing off their upgrades – before they start selling them – at Y8 Parent’s Evening at the beginning of February.