TENS OF THOUSANDS PLAN MEGA SLEEPOVER

Registrations flooding in for world’s largest sleepover over 24 hours

The Giant Sleepover provides ideal platform for schools to support SEAL*

The date has been announced and 10,000 participants are already registered to take part in the Giant Sleepover, the world’s largest sleepover over 24 hours on the 19th June 2010. Tens of thousands of children are signing up to join a community of ‘kids that care’ and sleepover to help raise money for their favourite children’s charities. Midnight feasts, gossiping, giggling, and late night whisperings are all the order of the day (and night) with events planned to take place across the globe.

An event for children by children, the Giant Sleepover has grown from just one school’s commitment in 2003 to a Guinness World Record of 35,000 participants in 2008. This year it is set to break all records with growing numbers registering groups and the NCPTA approving it as one of their official fundraising events.

You can hold the sleepover in your school hall, your staff room, your local campsite or on the school field! The sleeping will not be restricted to the school either with several sleepovers taking place in unique and unusual venues; kids will be imitating Tarzan in a monkey forest, going back in time in a museum and York Dungeons and finding out if fish sleep having their big snooze in the London Aquarium and Sea Life centres across the country.

Sandie Dinning, one of the founders of the Giant Sleepover said, ““What is great about the Giant Sleepover is that the kids have so much fun while also learning crucial social and behavioural skills and how they can play a part in helping others. Schools advise us that hosting a Giant Sleepover provides the ideal platform for developing these skills, allowing them to work collaboratively and more importantly developing their awareness of others. There are also aspects within the new primary strategy specifically SEAL (Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning) into which an event like this can make a valuable contribution.”

During the sleepovers children will get the chance to take part in a number of activities including cookery, sports, crafts and story-telling. They will also share a midnight feast, join a treasure hunt and link up around the world for simultaneous record breaking activities. To make the world record the children, aged between 5 and 16, must have their lights out for at least seven hours and not sleep in their own beds! 

Together with schools the 2010 Giant Sleepover is supported by all the major youth groups in the UK including, Girlguiding UK, The Boys and Girls Brigades, Sea Cadets, The Football Association, The Tennis Foundation and The England and Wales Cricket Board. If your school has not registered yet now is your chance!

To register your group of children for the Giant Sleepover simply log onto www.giantsleepover.com or call 0870 240 1640. Group registration starts at £10 and after that it costs £2 per child. All participants will receive a Giant Sleepover ‘Goodie Bag’ and Treasure Chest with toys, games and fun things to do on the night.

The Giant Sleepover event was created by Steve Malkin and his friends Sandie Dinning and Brian Adcock as a way to raise funds for children’s and local charities.  He and his wife thought of the idea following fundraising activities for their sons’ primary school and Cub Scout group in Sevenoaks, Kent.

The first official Giant Sleepover took place in 2004, setting a Guinness World Record for the Largest Simultaneous Sleepover with 8280 participants in 228 different locations.

The hottest sleepover recorded was 40C in Delhi, India in 2006.  The coldest was in the Falkland Islands at -5C.  The most northerly in the UK was the Faroe Isles and the most southerly was at BT Goonhilly in Devon.  The scariest sleepover took place in the London Dungeons.

ST PAULINUS CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL JOINED THOUSANDS TO SNOOZE FOR CHARITY

St Paulinus Catholic Primary School held largest sleepover in a school

155 children from St Paulinus Catholic Primary School, Dewsbury snuggled in their sleeping bags and tucked in to a midnight feast at the school on Saturday 20 June as part of the Giant Sleepover.  

This is the first time St Paulinus has taken part in the Giant Sleepover which they had heard about through the BBC’s Ready Steady Cook. St Paulinus Catholic Primary School is the centre of the community in Dewsbury and home to 420 children. They are self funding so need to find regular platforms for fundraising. Higher Level Teaching Assistant, John Scott comments; “The Giant Sleepover was a perfect activity for us as we wanted to introduce an annual event that the kids would enjoy, link with learning goals and help raise funds to support the schools working costs.”

St Paulinus Catholic Primary School raised almost £3,000, part of which will be used towards a greenhouse for the new allotment, to benefit the kids and school. The allotment is part of the long term plans for ‘Learning Outside the Classroom’, ‘Healthy Schools’ and ‘Eco-Schools’.

Higher Level Teaching Assistant, John Scott continues, “We had kids sleeping in the staff room, dance studio and library. Some schools may feel worried about having enough room or safety but I would reassure them not to be. School building’s are designed for kids and by following all the guidelines provided by the Giant Sleepover, and after a visit from our local fire service, we felt reassured and confident about the event running smoothly which it did.”

“We believe that the children gain a lot socially and emotionally from taking part in these extra-curricular activities. OFSTED in February 2009 said, “Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is outstanding.”

Sleep was not the only thing on Saturday’s agenda for St Paulinus Catholic Primary School, they took part in a selection of activities before lights out including soaking each other in a water fight, having a boogie at a disco, a game of Truth or Dare and spooky stories after dark.

 “The kids had a great time; I was not convinced we would behaving much sleep but all the activity, fun and excitement wore them out - eventually! We have already signed up for the 2010 sleepover.” finishes John Scott.