AN ANDOVER schoolboy has launched an appeal for books for a cause close to his heart. When four-year-old Silas, who attends Rookwood School, heard that the school in a village in Fiji that his family have contact with had recently been severely damaged by the tropical storm disasters, he decided he wanted to help. After launching a community appeal, within four days Silas had collected more 270 books, ranging from nursery to primary age, to send to the school. Silas counted, sorted, and packed the books ready to be sent. Hearing about the joy that he d brought to the school, he said: I was really happy, it made me think how lucky I am to be in a school with lots of books and now the other children will be really happy to have all my books and my baby books. I felt really good .
A Rookwood pupil has been praised online after spreading a little bit of sunshine into the lives of Andover residents. Pupils at the school were set a challenge by the acting head of the lower school to be productive this half-term by doing something 100 times. Eight-year-old Rio decided to distribute 100 personalised cards amongst his neighbouring residents in Andover with personalised sunshine cards, which he hand crafted himself. He was praised as “a star” for “putting a big smile on all of our faces” by people on social media. The challenge was set by the acting head of Rookwood’s lower school, Claire Nias, who was inspired by the late Captain Sir Tom Moore, who set out to walk 100 laps of his garden to raise money for NHS charities. She asked her students to set themselves a challenge during half-term, and to do that challenge 100 times to raise awareness of something they care about.