Students at Burnside have been helping to spread Christmas joy during the last week. Our ‘Cans for Grans’ campaign this year was our most successful ever – with around 1300 cans donated. Those which weren’t used for hampers for local senior citizens were donated to Bay Food Bank in North Shields…it was their biggest single donation EVER!

Duke of Edinburgh students also collected Christmas sweets and presents for children living in a local refuge AND we took 18 hyacinth plants (grown by the students) over to a local care home to go in residents rooms over Christmas.

Finally our gardeners sold the jams they had made and the flowers they grew as Christmas gifts which raised over ÂŁ100 for Maggie’s Centre at the Freeman Hospital.

The generosity of our students and staff has been amazing this year – many congratulations to everyone who helped with the campaigns – you all deserve a big pat on the back and have helped make many people’s Christmas a little more special.