Hazlegrove Prep children summit Everest during lockdown fundraiser

During lockdown, news of children summiting Everest is not what you expect to hear, however, that is exactly what the children from Hazlegrove Prep School achieved in their bid to raise funds for NHS Charities Together and Serve On.

Year 8 pupils and their families took part in a Virtual Climb of Everest from 14 – 22 May, ‘trekking’ and ‘climbing’ from Lukla Airport to the summit, by using stairs, steps, ladders and hills.

There were some solo summit attempts, some two-person teams, and larger teams of pupils, all of whom completed climbs daily to scale Mount Everest. The aim was to ‘summit’ together on the evening of Friday 22 May. The children sent in progress reports and photographs on a daily basis as they worked through the climb together.

On the Thursday of that week, the children marked the weekly Clap for Carers by creating rainbows to feature in their updates, some were drawn or painted, whilst others were created out of a range of walking and climbing equipment. Staff joined in as well, with Senior Tutor Mrs Deborah Mahony enlisting the help of the school guinea pig, Peanut along with some yaks, and Miss Rudd, who set up base camp in one of the school buildings, where she proceeded to make her climb.

The children showed great ingenuity in recreating the appearance of Everest whilst not leaving their homes during the COVID_19 lockdown, and connections were made around the globe, including three children being bag piped to the top of their local hill and two girls, who put together a dance routine to celebrate their achievement whilst they were on two different continents.

The children raised over £2,500 pounds for the charities.

Senior Tutor, Mrs Deborah Mahony said, ‘Around this time of the year, the Year 8 pupils would usually be planning their annual charity fete; we took this opportunity to do a different one-off exciting event as our remote learning alternative, and created an extra chance for the year group to stay connected and complete their first Leavers’ Project together. We are so proud of the way in which the children approached their Virtual Climb of Everest Challenge’.