Every year at King James I Academy, staff and students look forward to the annual Macmillan Coffee Morning event, which takes place in September. This is just one of the much-anticipated fundraising events included on the Academy calendar.

The event is organised in school by Linda Dixon, Sixth Form Mentor, and Anne Goddard, the Academy’s Careers Advisor, and each year a challenge is set to beat the total raised in the previous year; 2026 did not disappoint with a staggering £644.38 raised compared to £521.41 in 2025. Over two days, staff and students of all ages visited the Sixth Form Common Room to choose from the Macmillan table, laid out with sweet and savoury items that were both baked and bought.

Mrs Dixon said, “Our Macmillan fundraiser gets bigger and better every year. We now host the Coffee Morning over two days because the amount of donated baked goods we receive has increased so much. It’s a fantastic opportunity to raise money for a worthy cause but it’s also a brilliant social event.”

Fundraising is an important party of life at King James; earlier in the month, a group of staff and students raised over £2,500 for charity by taking part in The Great North Run, and in the last academic year, the Academy raised almost £11,500 for a variety of worthy causes.