Easter cake designed by Roedean pupil a hit with staff at the Alex.

Roedean pupils donated Easter eggs and took part in a competition to design an Easter...

Gayle and Chloe from the Play Team with Chloe Cheng, Mr Greg Wilson and Ruth Sambrook from Roedean

Roedean pupils donated Easter eggs and took part in a competition to design an Easter cake for NHS staff to support Rockinghorse Children’s Charity.

Roedean, the well-known independent day and boarding school for girls in East Brighton, has supported Rockinghorse for several years by organising Easter Egg collections, helping at the Brighton Marathon, and donating to the charity.

But this year, along with their usual efforts, they also wanted to do something to recognise the staff at the Alex and all the wonderful work they have done over the past year, in what has been an extremely stressful and pressurised time.

Chloe with her finished cake

So, they challenged their Year 7 students to design an Easter cake for the staff at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital. Greg Wilson, Year 7 tutor and Primary School Ambassador from Roedean, explained more: “We asked the students to come up with something creative, thoughtful and original. The students love anything to do with baking, so it seemed an appropriate choice especially being so close to Easter.”

The competition was judged by the school’s expert pastry chef, Ruth Sambrook, and the opportunity to see their design made into a real cake by Ruth proved to be really popular with 25 entries received from across the year.

The fabulous winning design was created by Chloe Cheng, who focused on how she felt about NHS staff: “I chose the design because the NHS staff are superheroes to me. They have saved so many people and been an inspiration to us all. I am so proud my design will be made into a real cake and I can’t wait to see it.”

The finished cake

The final cake looked wonderful when it was finished and delivered to the Alex along with 57 Easter Eggs donated by Year 7 pupils at Roedean.

And the staff were overwhelmed to accept it with Chloe Coward from the Play Team at the Alex commenting: “Thanks so much to the wonderful pupils and staff at Roedean for thinking about us here at the Alex. The support of the local community is so important to all the staff here at the hospital and gestures like this mean so much to all of us. We’re all really looking forward to having a slice with a cup of tea on our next break!”

Greg was really pleased that the school has been able to continue supporting the charity: “We decided to support Rockinghorse as it so local to us and is such an amazing and inspiring charity. The Easter Cake competition has been a great opportunity for our students to show their appreciation to the staff at the hospital in a creative and original way.

“This year has been so challenging for so many people and the least we could do was to try and brighten the day of the staff at the hospital and show them how much we appreciate everything they have done. If we have made a nurse, doctor, patient smile for even one moment then the competition has been worth it!”

The cake will hopefully make a nice surprise for the staff at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital and go some way to helping them know how important they are to everyone in the local community!