We welcomed Eilidh Gardner of The Rock Trust to Chapel today and heard how the £5,000 raised by some of our Lower Sixth Students when they took part in the Sleep Out for Rock Trust in November is being used by the charity.

On 15th November 2025 46 of our L6th students took part in the Sleep Out for Rock Trust, spending the night outside in the cloisters of the main College to raise awareness of youth homelessness in Edinburgh. The challenge encouraged students to step outside their comfort zones while standing in solidarity with young people who face this harsh reality every day. Some of the students who took part in this share their reflections:

“I found taking part in the Rock Trust Sleep Out an incredibly eye opening experience as it gave me a small bit of an insight into how homeless people have to live particularly in the cold of winter in Edinburgh, and I recommend taking part in the Sleep Out to anyone who’s going to do it next year”

“I really wanted to take part in the sleep out as I think it’s a really important issue and over the night I realised how cold I was and how uncomfortable I was and I can’t imagine living that on a day to day basis.”

“It was really cold, and the weather wasn’t the worst, but I just imagine how bad it must be for people who don’t have a choice and have to sleep outside no matter what weather.”

Eilidh Gardner of Rock Trust says "It was great to speak with the students at Fettes this morning about the impact that fundraising has on the work of Rock Trust. Everyone who took part in the Sleep Out last year did an incredible job of fundraising and bravely took on the challenge of sleeping outside in November! A big thank you from everyone at Rock Trust for helping us with our mission to end youth homelessness."