The Infamous Amnesty May Fayre 2025
May 2, 2025
There was a flurry of activity on the Palace Lawn on Friday 2 May during the lunch break, when a selection of stalls was set up to appeal to the school community. These included Splat the Rat, Temporary Tattoos, a Coconut Shy and the ever-popular Sponge the Teacher!
Six courageous teachers (I Hayward, J Song, E Wolsey, B Pearce, Jon Gent and M Stevens) faced the onslaught of cold water during a half hour of fundraising for the Werapitiya Village Fund in Sri Lanka. The school’s Amnesty Group aim is to pay for materials that will be used to provide flooring and walls for the community arts centre which has recently opened in a village outside Kandy.
The teachers were doubly generous in their participation because they had originally expected sponges of tepid water to be thrown at them, as per the wording of the original “invitation”. However, due to the lack of accuracy of pupils using the aforementioned projectile, the decision was made to offer buckets of water instead – albeit at a far higher rate of pay/donation!
Mr Bedford-Payne and all members of the Amnesty Group are very grateful for the good nature, determination and sheer resilience of these members of staff. Over £100 was raised in a very short space of time.

