Business-minded junior school girls in Norwich have turned £176 into a remarkable £5,000 for a hospital maternity unit.
The girls in the junior school at Norwich High School for Girls were given a £1 coin and the challenge of growing the money, to raise cash for the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) unit.
From the original £176 handed out, the figure was turned into an impressive £5,182.93.
The girls were inspired to fundraise for the maternity unit after a talk in assembly by midwife Liz Turner, with all girls voting to put the money towards a new cube bed for the ward.
The initiatives the girls used to boost the cash involved putting the £1 into a mini-business and making profits, selling hand-made artwork, plants and cakes.
Many of the girls visited their parents’ workplaces to increase sales, and others started services such as car washing, baby sitting, cleaning, dog walking and gardening.
Last week, the first count of the money revealed that just over £4,610 had been raised - and a group of year six girls walked from the high school on Newmarket Road to the maternity unit to hand deliver the funds.
Mrs Turner, midwife at the NNUH, said: “It was such a treat to come into the school and speak to the girls about being a midwife last month... I am immensely proud of all of the girls, not just for the amount they raised but the innovative ideas they employed to fund raise.”
But they continued to gather funds this week, increasing the total to comfortably over £5,000.
Head of the junior school Nick Tiley-Nunn said: “I could not be more proud of the incredible amount of money that they have raised for such a worthy cause.
“It was amazing to visit the hospital to see how the money that we had raised has already made a difference.”
Do you have an education story that we should be writing about? Let us know by emailing education correspondent Lauren Cope on lauren.cope@archant.co.uk
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