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RAG Week 2023
Sophie in Nightingale 2 and her Senior Prefect Team sent this report:
At the end of Term 2, we had the privilege of putting on this year’s RAG week. The ‘week’ was jam-packed with lunchtime events and dress up days in order to raise money for our 5 chosen RAG charities: Therapy Partners, Guide Dogs, Samphire, Dandelion Time and Samaritans of Maidstone and the Weald. It was brilliant to see our school community come together to fundraise for these wonderful local causes, whilst having lots of fun along the way.
This year’s RAG events kicked off with a returning favourite, Soccer Aid. Last year the teachers battled for a tough win but this year the students were able to end their winning streak and secure a comfortable victory in the lunchtime thriller. Even if some disagreed with the result, the match really helped show the fun and (very!) competitive side of the teachers.
Of course, it wouldn’t be RAG week without the teachers embarrassing themselves for our entertainment during the annual showing of Stars In Their Eyes! This year, we saw the return of last year’s winners, the maths department, and saw the humanities department make Invicta history with their performance of ‘Blame It on the Boogie’! The Leadership Group also made a memorable appearance as ‘revolting children’ and we were treated to an unforgettable duet from Mrs Oliver and Mrs McGrath singing ‘Rewrite the Stars’ from The Greatest Showman.
Monday evening also saw another successful RAG dance show, which celebrated iconic music, films and decades. Students across all year groups choreographed and rehearsed 23 incredible dances in just 8 weeks, and all the dancers performed beautifully.
This year, the senior prefect team took on the additional challenge of crafting a brand new lunchtime event. ‘I’m a sixth former, get me out of here!’, inspired by the well-known and beloved ‘I’m a celebrity’, involved twenty sixth formers battling it out to be crowned king or queen of the jungle. The contestants competed in challenges such as ‘donuts of doom’ and ‘critter canteen’, having to squeeze through hula-hoops, find stars in buckets of disgusting unknown mixtures, draw portraits of their teammates, and eat donuts in a timely fashion. While all the contestants performed extremely well, we saw Elizabeth in Year 12 and Abbie in Year 13 crowned our queens of the jungle – a very big well done to you both!
RAG 2023 also brought another round of creative dress up days. The summer release of Barbie inspired some amazing costumes, from bibble to cowboy barbies to some incredibly well-dressed Kens! Along with our Barbie themed day, we had some frightening supervillains show up for our ‘heroes vs villains' day and an iconic appearance from Big Ben (Mr Tillbrook) for ‘Brit Culture’ day. Both students and teachers went above and beyond to get involved with our dress up themes - you all looked amazing!
The senior prefect team would like to extend a huge thank you to all of the students and staff who got involved with RAG this year and helped to make it happen, whether it was partaking in an event or simply purchasing a wristband and getting dressed up. Throughout the week we raised over £10,500, which will help our RAG charities to continue their incredible work in and around Kent. This is a phenomenal total which as a school community we should be very proud of. Thank you again, and let’s look forward to what RAG Week 2024 will bring!
