School staff cabaret gives chosen charities big boost

COMMONWEAL School celebrated in style this week when staff braved the boards to take part in the annual Commonweal Cabaret.

Each year, the school gets together to raise money for charity by putting on a comic show to colleagues, parents and students.

This year's event was a sell-out success, raising around £1,500 for SENSE and Headway Swindon and District.

Ali Sutclife, Commonweal's head of music who helped to organise the event, said: "The Commonweal Cabaret was set up back in 2011 when teacher Liam Stacey and I were needing to raise money for charity to secure their places for the London Marathon that year.

"After a successful evening, and lots of cash raised for VICTA and CLIC Sargent, I discussed the idea of another cabaret the following year with Keith Defter – the head master and we agreed to hold another one in aid of Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

"We have since raised money for Prospect Hospice and this year supported both SENSE and Headway Swindon and District.

"The event raises between £1,000 and £2,000 each year and every penny gets given to charity.

"The acts performing are almost exclusively made up of staff from Commonweal School - teachers, support staff, admin staff and senior management team.

"Led by me, the staff organise their own rehearsals and pull everything together on the day to make the show such a huge success. Items this year included a Rowan Atkinson style comedy sketch, staff rock band, various vocal and instrumental solos, staff choir and the long awaited video from pop-sensation ‘L.I.Am - aka Mr Stacey.

"Tickets for this year’s show sold within a week of going on sale and the audience was filled with parents, students, staff and members of the wider community.

"As a teacher of music, and part of an active performing arts faculty, the point of my subject is to perform. I therefore absolutely loved sharing this performance experience with my colleagues from other faculties and departments. The students and parents seeing the ICT staff ‘rock out’ on stage and the teaching assistants dancing to ‘Pitch Perfect’ is really memorable and great to witness."

As well as the performance, the money was also raised through a raffle and auction. SENSE received £200 while the remainder went to Headway.

A spokesman from Headway said it was fantastic news, and the money would go towards funding the new building.