Dear Parents/Carers,
You may have seen in the press or on social media about a project set up by a group of Sheffield mums recently called Project Paddington which plans to send teddy bears to refugee children with notes and pictures from children in the UK showing that we care. Our children have told us that they would like to be involved in Project Paddington and so we are enabling them to do this. This is what the project involves:

1. Families are asked to send a washed teddy bear from home into school with a self-portrait and a short, encouraging note to a refugee child. Ask the office or your class teacher for a piece of A6 sized paper. Please send the teddy bears into school and ask your child to give them to their class teacher.  Please note the teddy bears must have the EC mark on the label so that we can send them outside the UK.

2. Parents can then volunteer in school to laminate these messages and attach them to the bears. Please contact the school office if you would like to volunteer for this task.

3. We would like the bears sent in by Friday 25th September. We will then contact Project Paddington HQ who will arrange for the bears to be distributed to refugee families in Calais, reception centres in this country and further afield by working with existing organisations.

4. We would also like to collect basic toiletries such as toothpaste, toothbrushes and bars of soap. Please send these in to the office by Friday 25th September.

5. You can also sponsor your teddy by completing the sponsor form and sending in the money to school or donate on the payment page at www.projectpaddington.com

If you would like to do so, you can contact the project at projectpaddingtonuk@gmail.com or look out for the Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/713462355464223/

We would like to get this project underway as soon as possible and we are ready to receive the teddy bears as soon as they are ready.

Yours sincerely

Cath Thomas and Lisa Ashmore