News

15 May 2020

The John Lyon 2.6 Challenge — press ups, PPE and pastries

The School’s annual Values Day was dedicated entirely to Community, as pupils and staff smashed their fundraising target in the John Lyon 2.6 Challenge.

Launched on Thursday 7th May and running across the long VE Day Bank Holiday weekend, 270 members of the School community took the chance to complete a task related to the number 26. Press ups and planks proved popular for those wanting to do something physical, as did baking for those wanting to spend time in the kitchen.

Other activities including delivering PPE equipment to the NHS, volunteering with elderly members of the community, planting spring onions, juggling and reading Shakespeare…with a dog!

The result of the John Lyon 2.6 Challenge was a huge £1,600 raised for the School’s chosen charity, the London North West Healthcare Charity, based at nearby Northwick Park Hospital, which serves the Harrow community tirelessly and which has been very hard-hit by the global pandemic that we face at this time. The charity helps fund innovative projects that improve patient and staff experience, including cutting-edge technology and medical research. At present they are turning their attentions to supporting hospital staff with vital care packages and mental wellbeing support.

As the School continues to observe the current lockdown situation, with learning and teaching taking place remotely, it was felt Community would be the most appropriate of the School’s eight Values to celebrate, encouraging the School community to do something for the people around them, and at the same time challenging themselves.

Mr Adam Ling, John Lyon’s Co-Curricular and Extra-Curricular coordinator said: “Having now been apart from each other for a number of weeks, it was really good for the whole School community to come together virtually for the John Lyon 2.6 Challenge. Our pupils and staff always get stuck in and it was great to see so many different activities taking place that helped us smash our original fundraising target of £1,260 by over £300.”

The donations page remains open for anyone else to give, if they are able.

Community


With the postponement of many School House events this term, the John Lyon 2.6 Challenge also became a House challenge. Each pupil who completed a task scored a point for either Butler, Moore, Norwood or Vaughan.

With all the entries counted, it was Norwood who came out on top with 75 points, followed by Butler (65), Moore (54) and Vaughan (46).