News, events and schools' information for families across Bath and West Wiltshire

World Homeless Day will take place on 10 October 2019 as people around the world mark to raise awareness and help change the lives of homeless people in their local community.

This year, Bath-based charity, Julian House, is asking schools, friends and families across Somerset and Wiltshire to unite on this important day and help raise vital funds and awareness to support its work.

Schools and teachers can sign up and pledge to support Julian House with a fundraising activity such as a mufti day, cake sale or quiz. Participating schools will also be sent the charity’s newly launched KS2 and KS3 education packs, which have been praised by Teach It for teachers to use on the day.

Homelessness is a complex issue. It can be hard to understand why, how and who can end up homeless. As such, each pack contains free teaching resources designed to encourage pupils to think about homelessness in a different way, in a bid to better understand it. Designed to complement the current KS2 and KS3 curriculum, the charity’s packs contain various lesson plans including subjects such as English, maths, PSHE and art. Each plan contains easy to follow directions, activities, PowerPoints and multimedia.

After using the resources, KS2 teachers at Saltford Primary School said, “The lesson plans worked very well and the children found the lessons easy to follow and engage with. The activities and stories provided worked well in exploring the thoughts and feeling associated with homelessness.”

Of the event, Senior Community and Events Fundraiser, Jessica Gay, said, “World Homeless Day gives us and the public time to come together to make a real difference. Homelessness is by no means a one-day thing, it’s something that affects members of our community 365 days a year. But we hope with the use of our packs, it’ll give us the chance to raise awareness within schools and amongst younger members of our society – the thought leaders of tomorrow.”

If you work for a school, are a parent or would like a pack, you can request one here.

If you don’t need a pack, but would still like to fundraise, you can receive more information and fundraising ideas from Jess at email hidden; JavaScript is required