A leading Welsh cancer charity has developed a selection of free resources designed to show schools the power of song. In 2010, Tenovus Cancer Care worked with Cardiff University to prove that singing can help cancer patients and their families. Now, they have fifteen choirs across Wales and have developed a school resource pack for KS3/4 Science that helps teachers to talk to pupils about research, using the organisation’s famous Sing with Us choirs as an engaging example.

Teachers at a school specialising in Science and Health Care for 14 to 19-year olds sacrificed their beards In December to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust. Liverpool Life Sciences UTC has been supporting the charity after one of their students endured a long and difficult struggle with cancer.

Nottingham Girls’ High School has joined forces with the NSPCC to raise vital funds for the community. Pupils were joined by esteemed alumna Jenny Farr MBE, president of the Nottingham branch of the NSPCC, and held a Mad Hatter-style coffee morning campaign to mark 125 years of NSPCC East Midlands. The event raised over £1000, and included an Alice in Wonderland-themed fancy dress, bake sales, tea parties and an art competition.

Allow me to introduce Anita. Anita is 12 years old. She is paralysed from the waist down, caused by a polio infection a number of years ago. While there are cuts in the UK that are impacting upon the level of care that is able to be delivered to children with special needs, we’re still a million miles away from the reality of life for children who live in many parts of the world.

Some of the most special moments during my recent visit to Rukungiri, Uganda this June were at the project at Kitazigurukwa Primary School where we spent much of our time. The SEN school and dormitories for the disabled children are already in place and so we have been working on a kitchen and storage building specifically for the children and then another for the teachers house.

I have been on an incredible, emotional and laughter-filled adventure this June. So that I can give you as much of a flavour of what Uganda is like and what the needs are, I will be writing a few blogs looking at some of the projects that we were involved with while we were there.

Nixiwaka Yawanawá, an Amazonian tribesman from Brazil, recently paid a visit to Great Chesterford Primary School in Essex. Nixiwaka, now living in London, works with the charity Survival to teach British pupils about life in tribal Brazil.