Replacing our very old and decrepit exam desks

Aim

Upper Wharfedale School's exam desks are old, wobbly and full of repairs that have been repaired! We are raising funds to replace them.

Upper Wharfedale School is a small but popular and successful secondary school in rural North Yorkshire. Budgets for all schools are tight at the moment, but with only 355 students on roll and being in a rural area, our budgets are particularly tight and we simply don't have the funds for some things. One of these things is the desks that we use for our students to sit at to take their exams.

Our desks are old, many of them were bought second-hand in the mid-1990s, and are increasingly worn following years of service and multiple repairs. We are getting to the point where even the repairs are needing to be repaired, and a lot of work is required before every exam to provide students with even adequate conditions for the exam. Even so, over half of our 100 desks wobble due to misshapen frames and must be stabilized with folded card. Many of the desktops are loose and cannot be adequately repaired due to stripped screw holes. Most of the desktops are scratched an don't provide a completely flat surface to work on.

As there is no money in the school budgets to replace the desks, I have been looking for grants to apply for but sadly have been unsuccessful in obtaining any funding. Our Parent-Teacher Association have generously granted us £1,000 to go towards desks, but I still need £2,500 to buy the 100 desks we need.

Please can you help?

We would be so, so grateful for any donations you could make, no matter how small, and all funds received would go towards buying new exam desks with storage trolleys that would provide many future cohorts of students with stable and durable workspaces, thus maximizing their opportunities for exam success.

As Exams Officer, I have seen over and over again how much better students perform in exams if they are relaxed, comfortable and only need to worry about recalling their learning, rather than being stressed about the exam accommodation. Being able to provide new exam desks for our students would very much reduce their exam stress and therefore contribute to them having the best chance of succeeding and gaining good results.

Many thanks for your consideration. 

This project successfully funded on 10th December 2025