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Karnival, The University of Nottingham Students’ Union’s charitable organisation, has helped keep a Nottingham primary school on the road with a generous donation of £2,000.
The donation followed a request from local MP Christopher Lesley for The University of Nottingham to respond to calls for funding from St Augustine's Primary School on Park Avenue. Funding had been removed for their school bus, forcing a number of pupils to leave the school and causing endless travel problems for parents.
On Monday 3 October, student-run charity Karnival presented the school with a cheque for £2,000. The cheque was welcomed with open arms, as the donation will keep the school bus service running until the October half-term, giving parents and the school extra time to finalise a long term solution to their predicament.
Chris Bowman, Karnival Director said of the donation: "It's just fantastic to be able to help and make such an immediate difference. The parents and staff of the school must have had so many worries over the last few weeks so to relieve those somewhat is pleasing. Hopefully this money can now give them the time to come up with something that can have a lasting impact."
In a thank you letter to the students involved with Karnival, St Augustine’s head teacher Caroline Caille, said: “Thank you so much for your very generous donation of £2,000 to the school. The school was given very little notice from the City Council that we would be losing our school bus.
“This created a big problem for many of our parents who relied on it to get their children to and from school every day. Your donation has allowed us to continue the bus until the end of this half-term, giving parents more time to make alternative arrangements.”
Karnival raised £1.4 million for local and national charities in 2010 and are aiming to have exceeded this figure when the 2011 totals are announced in December.
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Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham, described by The Sunday Times University Guide 2011 as ‘the embodiment of the modern international university’, has award-winning campuses in the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia. It is ranked in the UK's Top 10 and the World's Top 75 universities by the Shanghai Jiao Tong (SJTU) and the QS World University Rankings. It was named ‘Europe’s greenest university’ in the UI GreenMetric World University Ranking, a league table of the world’s most environmentally-friendly higher education institutions, which ranked Nottingham second in the world overall.
The University is committed to providing a truly international education for its 40,000 students, producing world-leading research and benefiting the communities around its campuses in the UK and Asia.
More than 90 per cent of research at The University of Nottingham is of international quality, according to the most recent Research Assessment Exercise, with almost 60 per cent of all research defined as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. Research Fortnight analysis of RAE 2008 ranked the University 7th in the UK by research power.
The University’s vision is to be recognised around the world for its signature contributions, especially in global food security, energy & sustainability, and health.
More news from the University at: www.nottingham.ac.uk/news
The University of Nottingham Students’ Union is one of the largest in the sector with over 35,800 members on campuses in the UK, China and Malaysia from over 140 different countries. The Union exists to represent the interests of its members to relevant stakeholders and to provide quality services and development opportunities for its membership.
The Union operates almost 200 student-led societies and 77 sports clubs for its members. Its student-run fundraising organisation, Karnival, is one of the largest in Europe raising over £1,000,000 for good causes throughout 2009/2010. It boasts the oldest Student Community Action (now the Student Volunteer Centre) which has approximately 2,000 students participating in over 120 projects. URN, the student radio station, and Impact, the student magazine, have won a clutch of recent national accolades.
As well as this the Union also operates three retail outlets, two bars and a print shop to serve its members. Profits are passed back into the Union to fund member-based activities.