Pupils from Derbyshire school take on line dancing challenge – and raise more than £1,300 for charity

The whole school dressed up and took part in line dancing sessions across a day at St Thomas’ Catholic Voluntary Academy in Ilkeston. Their efforts were well awarded – as over £1,300 was raised and will be donated to CAFOD.

CAFOD is a global aid charity, which organises a fundraising walk every year involving pupils from primary and secondary schools. But this year St Thomas’ decided to up the challenge and changed the walk into a line dance instead.

Teacher Lyndsey Ford, who runs a clubbercise exercise class and led the sessions with all year groups, said: “We were planning on doing a walk but doing it to the song ‘these boots are made for walking’ and then we thought why don’t we do a line dance instead.

"We asked everyone to dress up and each class came into the hall and learnt some steps. We had a set playlist and the teachers took part too. The older children learnt a dance, the pupils in Years 5 and 6 really got into it, it was a lovely atmosphere.

"Everyone really enjoyed it and it really got the boys talking too. Everyone was engaged with it. We do lots of things like this at St Thomas’.”

One of the pupils, Caitlin, 10, said: “I used to dance when I was younger but then I stopped. I was a bit nervous about doing the line dancing but it was really fun. I have seen line dancing before but I’ve never done it. The steps were quite easy to learn. It was about keeping to the beat and repeating the same steps. I loved it because of the country music, I’ve started listening to it at home now too.”

Michael Sellors, Headteacher at St Thomas’, said: “It was brilliant to raise such a large sum of money for CAFOD in such a fun way. We have such a generous community in Ilkeston and we are so thankful for all the money that was sponsored.”