Our wonderful, caring pupils at Upton Heath Church of England Primary School have raised over £1500 for Chester Zoo, outstripping our original target amount of £400.

We were moved to support Chester Zoo after hearing how the coronavirus pandemic had affected our local, world-class zoo. Knowing our children at Upton Heath are talented with their art, teachers decided on an art themed fundraiser.

The idea of the fundraiser was simple yet fun. Our pupils planned a virtual day trip around the zoo on the 17th June using the Chester Zoo online map, with various virtual stops to visit and draw favourite animals. By asking friends and family to sponsor them for every animal visited and drawn, we were able to raise the very impressive amount of £1528 (8th July 2020). One of our children even managed to raise a fantastic £117 from their virtual day trip.

To further extend the fundraiser as a learning experience, pupils also got involved with activities like designing their own zoos, making timetables and creating fact files and guides on various animals. We particularly liked the interesting features included in the zoo designs like the original Chester Zoo monorail.

As well as the virtual day at the zoo, our pupils have raised money for Chester Zoo by painting pebbles like animals and selling them (raising £116), creating animal handprints, a sponsored run that raised £500 and even selling old toys on eBay (raising £150).

We’d like to say a massive ‘well done’ to our pupils, we know that Chester Zoo and its animals will be so appreciative of your efforts.