Charities & Partnerships

Our ethos at Parkgate House emphasises the importance of fostering a sense of social responsibility (both within our local community and beyond) and a culture of respect, humility, and of being ‘givers’ not ‘takers’. 

Every year, our children and indeed our families support a range of charities through an exciting array of activities, such as our annual Fun Run and our Book Week Bake Sale.  Some of the charities we commit to supporting each year include the Royal Trinity Hospice, Children in Need, the Rotary Shoebox Scheme, Friends of Clapham Common and Room to Read. We have very close relationships with these charities, some of which we have supported for more than two decades. We have chosen to support these charities each year to ensure that we, as a school, support a range of causes, including those within our local community in Clapham, London. 

The Royal Trinity Hospice is one of our longstanding school charities, and we have been fundraising for the Royal Trinity Hospice since 1997.  Our annual Fun Run was quickly established as a key fundraising event, and this much-loved House event still takes place during the Autumn Term every year.  More recently, a Prep triathlon has been added to our fundraising calendar, and this provides another opportunity for sporting fun, as well as community fundraising.  Many Parkgate parents have chosen to further support the Royal Trinity Hospice and one of our parents became a Trustee.  In 2016, Parkgate House was presented with a Star Award in recognition of our long-term fundraising for the Royal Trinity Hospice. 

Room to Read is another of our longstanding school charities, and we have supported Room to Read since 2005.  We fully endorsed the charity’s philosophy, emphasising that ‘World Change Starts with Educated Children’.  The charity’s founder, John Wood, was introduced to Parkgate House by a former Parkgate family who were supporting the then fledgling charity, which became one of the fastest-growing nonprofit organisations in history, opening more libraries in its first decade than Starbucks did coffee shops!  In 2005, Parkgate initiated the World Book Day fundraising for Room to Read which continues today, and an ‘Auction of Promises’ was held to support the charity in their efforts to re-build schools after the devastation caused by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami.  The proceeds from Parkgate’s fundraising funded a new Room to Read school in Sri Lanka, and John Woods was so impressed with our efforts that Parkgate features in his award-winning memoir, ‘Leaving Microsoft to Change the World’. 

In addition to these charities that are supported on a permanent basis, each year our Head Boy or Head Girl and our Sports Captain each select a charity to support. They organise and lead various activities across the school to help to raise awareness and to encourage donations. Recent charities we have supported include Sport in Mind, Sport Relief, the Alzheimer’s Society, the British Lung Foundation, Little Village, Wandsworth Food Bank and the Go Live Theatre Project. 

Even our school song, ‘Share’, as the name suggests, reminds children to be giving and thoughtful towards those around them.