Lyla's Birthday Wish Makes Headlines

Pre Prep Reception pupil Lyla is asking for donations to Water Aid for her 5th birthday instead of gifts this year.

Her story has made national and local news this week with the headline 'Britain's kindest child? Little girl asks for something special for her fifth birthday - and it isn't toys'. 

Lyla's Mum explained why Lyla asked for donations instead of presents for her birthday...

'A few of Lyla's family and friends asked us (Luke and Kiley, her parents) what she would like for her birthday so we decided to ask her and this was her response...

"I want everyone to bring two buckets of water to my birthday party since they can carry one in each hand. And they need to make sure that the buckets have lids on them so the water doesn't spill. The lids are very important."

As you can imagine, we were confused by this and had to ask her what the water was for. To which she replied, "So we can send the water to the kids in Africa that have dirty water and no water to drink."

After a few long and confusing conversations she explained that she had seen the kids with dirty water on TV and she was very worried about them. She now seems to understand that we can't actually send buckets of water to the kids in Africa so we explained that we could set up a website for people to donate money to help those kids get some clean water to drink. She understand she won't get any gifts for her birthday but we will make sure she sees the donations on the website and we'll keep a record for her and this will be her 'gift'.

She was so excited that we could help the kids get water. This is something that obviously had a big impact on her when she saw the advertisement on TV and she seems very worried about it so we're happy to go along with this and help her support such a good cause.'

Lyla's fundraising total currently stands at £865.71 (as of 02/12/15) and she is over the moon that so many children in Africa will be helped as a result of the donations. As a school we are very proud of Lyla and we wish her a happy birthday and lots of luck with her fundraising!

To donate, go to Lyla's JustGiving page