Coat collection fires imagination and helps WrapUp London

On the seasonably chilly morning of Friday 25th November, two pupils at UCS Hampstead launched the school’s very first collection of winter coats for the charity HandsOn London’s annual WrapUp London collection.

Alfie and Sam, both in Year 8 (known at UCS as the Shell), discovered the collection when they were thinking about ways they could help benefit the school’s wider community. Their subsequent preparations, including excellent poster design, organisation of the wonderful UCS Maintenance Team and rallying of the school community, really paid off and the level of donations and generosity took them both by surprise.

Donations of coats, spanning all ages, designs and gender, flooded in from 8am and the boys lost count. Estimations are at around 200 coats, however. It seems certain that, given the success of the inaugural collection, this will become a regular fixture in the UCS calendar.

Edward Roberts, Assistant Head (Head of Lower School), explained how this type of initiative and endeavour is typical of the culture in his section of UCS: “I am delighted by how Alfie and Sam have led this initiative. They came up with the idea a month ago and they really captured the imagination of the school community.

“Within the Lower School, we frequently discuss compassion, empathy and the need to help other people. We also look at leadership development and how to build successful teams. Alfie and Sam have certainly embraced all these qualities and I look forward to seeing them lead future charitable initiatives here at UCS and beyond.”

Alfie, one of the two pupil organisers, reflected on the success of the event: “I thoroughly enjoyed the coat collection because it made me feel I was helping the community. When I saw how many coats we got, it made me feel happy because I knew they would all go to people in need. I really think we should make the coat collection an annual thing at UCS as it influences us to donate what we don’t need to someone who does need it and that’s important.”