PRIMARY pupils have teamed up with a local charity to send their old school uniforms to a school in Africa.

Rivington Primary School would ordinarily do a ‘uniform swap’ at school which provides everyone with a really simple way to replace outgrown school uniforms. However, they will be changing their uniform from September 2024, from grey sweatshirts and cardigans to green, following a consultation with pupils, parents, and staff.

They have taken into consideration the environmental impact changing the uniform will have and are delighted to have developed a relationship with local charity ‘Great Minds Bright Futures’ to ensure the old school uniforms can still be put to good use.

The charity works closely with a school in Malawi to ensure all children there are given the best support possible for their education. However, the one thing the children there are still desperate for is school uniforms.

Headteacher at Rivington Primary School, Clare Powell, said: “Everyone at Rivington Primary School is thrilled to be able to provide pre-loved uniforms to orphans in Malawi.

“We are so pleased to have teamed up with Great Minds Bright Futures to make sure none of our old school uniforms go to waste.

“I am so proud of our wonderful pupils for their generous donations. I really hope they will make a difference to the children in Malawi in their learning journey.

“We also recognise that the change of uniform will have a financial impact on many of our own families. So, to help towards the cost of our new uniform, school and the PTFA have provided every child from our current Reception to Y5 class with a £15.00 per child donation to help towards the cost.”

The charity was created after the founder, Dave Armstrong, who – on a visit to the country - discovered a dilapidated primary school with over 1,500 children on the register.

Not all of those registered were attending school due to the state of the buildings and often the children were too hungry to walk to school. He created ‘Great Minds Bright Futures’ and, together with adult orphans, built a brand-new school for the children and now have over 1,600 children in daily attendance at Chunzu Primary School.

Just last year alone, ‘Great Minds Bright Futures’ provided 40,560 meals, 1,248 hours of activities for each child, funded two students to go to high school, took 34 children on a trip to Lake Malawi, built one orphan daycare building, distributed 3,200 exercise books, given out 400 tubes of toothpaste and toothbrushes, distributed 600 bars of soap, given out 130 pairs of shoes and over 1,000 pens and pencils.

To find out more about the work of the charity, please check out their website: greatmindsbrightfutures.co.uk