Pupils at Taunton Prep School and Taunton Pre-Prep School have raised more than £4,000 at an all-day charity event which was the idea of Year 8 pupil Ava to raise money for two charities close to her heart: Scotty’s Little Soldiers and Rock 2 Recovery.
The fundraising day was called ‘Operation Exceptional’ to tie-in with the School’s ‘Find Your Exceptional’ motto and saw every pupil from Reception to Year 8 take part in a range of sporting and academic activities, including swimming the length of the English Channel, completing assault courses, conducting exciting science experiments, creating group art projects and singing as a choir. 
Many of the activities on the day were assisted by two groups of Royal Marines from Somerset and Devon respectively, as well as students in the school’s Combined Cadet Force.
Catharine Adcock, Ava’s former tutor and a teacher at Taunton Prep School, said: “Operation Exceptional stemmed from a student asking for help to raise money for a charity close to her heart. Through the power of our school community, we were able to achieve something super special.
“I’m so proud of Ava and what she was able to achieve through the hard work she put into organising the day. Seeing the support she received from her Mum, Laura, who also had a big hand in the organisation, plus every member of staff including Mr McCarthy and Mr Swires and her peers was truly fantastic.”
While the Prep School pupils’ main aim was to raise as much money as possible, they were also recording the time spent on each activity to later translate each minute into a mile with the hope of getting all around the world. This resulted in a total of 67,273 miles recorded which equates to 2.7 times around the world.
Operational Exceptional attracted support from many high-profile names, including Sean Bean, Alex Jones, Jason Fox and Sean Conway, who sent in videos throughout the day to show their support of the pupils and the two charities.
Both charities involved have a strong link to the military, with Scotty’s Little Soldiers supporting children with fallen military parents and Rock 2 Recovery providing crucial support to veterans suffering from PTSD and mental health challenges.
Donations are still being accepted via the event’s GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/operation-exceptional.
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