South Dartmoor Community College teams up with Giving World 

South Dartmoor Community College has teamed up with national charity, Giving World, in a new initiative which will benefit all students at the school. 

The school in Ashburton has called the scheme the 'Room of Requirement' – after the Harry Potter books – and has seen it receive dozens of items for free that students can claim. The haul includes 150 pairs of socks, 30 pairs of gloves, 240 bottles of spray disinfectant, 176 tubes of hand cream, 72 bottles of shampoo, 120 pocket travel guides, 20 hairbrushes, 1,000 biro pens, 10 cookery books and 150 reading books.

Students can take something they need in return for bringing in something that another member of the college community may benefit from. 

Plans for the initiative to expand include unclaimed lost property and items of uniform that students may have outgrown but are still perfectly fit for others to wear. By allowing students to bring an item they no longer need, vital and often expensive items such as scientific calculators will be available to those who need them most, at no cost. 

Giving World invites members to request various products which would be useful to their school or organisation, with successful requests receiving items for the price of postage. As well as providing useful items, the partnership will divert surplus products from going to landfill, generating environmental benefits as well as social and economic. 

The new partnership is in line with South Dartmoor Community College's core guiding principle of encouraging and developing personal responsibility amongst all members of the school community. The initiative will provide resources to students that will ultimately support them, alongside their learning, to achieve their full potential during the school day.

Carol Murray, Subject Leader Future Horizons and Subject Leader GCSE Psychology at South Dartmoor Community College, who oversaw the initiative for the school, said: 

"We are delighted to have teamed up with Giving World to develop the Room of Requirement at the college. It is a wonderful initiative that will bring together and benefit our whole school community, and is truly reflective of how collaborative we are as a school.

"I'd like to thank all the staff who have helped to get our partnership with Giving World started, and for the hard work involved in setting up a project which promotes cooperation and reciprocity."