2000 Laps of the School Field for Ukraine By Rebekah Pantlin (Year 6)
July 21st, 2022
On the 1st of July 2022, at St Michael’s CEVC Primary School, Stoke Gifford, five determined year 5 pupils finished jogging 2000 laps of the school field to raise money for a country that is unfortunately struggling, Ukraine.
Rhys Gilpin, Jamie Williams, Theo Corrick, Ollie Harris and George Stephens have done a fantastic job of completing the challenge which was started in April. After achieving 2000 laps, all five boys felt very pleased. It all started when they thought they all needed to do a bit of extra exercise so they thought they would do some jogging together. The boys then realised that they could get fit and raise money for Ukraine as this was an important cause for them.
The headmaster, Mr Pete Barnard, stated that he has been incredibly proud of all the boys as they had persevered to run 2000 laps during wind, rain, scorching heat and boiling sun to achieve something so special to help people less fortunate than us. Like all children at St Michael’s, the boys understand the importance of charity and serving others. They have all worked so hard and have taken it rather seriously. Furthermore, they even have been training and practising in their gardens just for this important run.
Whilst the boys were running, the reporter (me) even ran a few laps with them and asked some questions at the same time; I have to say that running, writing and talking all at the same time is very difficult! The boys replied to the question, ‘What do you do if someone starts to slow down and they become quite far behind?’ with an answer of, “We also start to slow down to catch up with them so we can encourage them to keep going on but we never stop. No stopping until we cross the finish line.”
After these fantastic boys completed their 2000 laps, they all jumped on the floor in happiness and started rolling on their backs in joy, though I’m not sure their parents were happy with that for their washing!
As it was a very much a group project, Rhys, Ollie, Theo, Jamie and George all waited for each other at the finish line to run through the whole of Year 5 as a group. Once they had run another EXTRA lap with everyone, along with the headteacher and a few others, the boys reported that it felt brilliant and really good to achieve their goal. They managed to run 2000 laps of St Michaels’ Stoke Gifford Primary School’s vast field out of the kindness of their hearts to raise money for Ukraine. What is just astonishing as well is the fact that once they achieved this great charity cause, they were not exhausted and had loads of energy left!
Back to news