FIVE thousand school items will be sent to a Southampton primary school after their Christmas wish list was answered.
School resource company Twinkl - who are based more than 200 miles away in Sheffield - answered a head teacher's plea for help after she said funding cuts mean she is unable to buy basic school supplies.
As reported Valentine Primary School's head teacher Liz Filer put out a wish list asking for parents to buy basic supplies.
When managers at Twinkl and their partner YPO saw the Daily Echo's story they picked up the phone to Ms Filer and asked her exactly what she needed.
Now a total of 5,030 items will be delivered on Thursday - with the entire list the school appealed for arriving in the following week.
Jonathan Seaton, founder and CEO of school resource company Twinkl, said: “Everything we do at Twinkl is to help those who teach and we deliver ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ year-round to support schools, teachers and our customers when they are at a particular time of need.
“We know that this is not a solution to the issues that Valentine Primary School faces regarding funding for supplies and we know that there are schools out there in a similar situation. But we hope that this will help the school during this difficult time. The most important thing is that educators and schools are empowered to speak out about any challenges they encounter in order to raise awareness and get support.”
YPO’s managing director Simon Hill said: “After reading about Valentine Primary School’s wish-list we were more than happy to work with Twinkl and provide the everyday essential products the school needs to deliver lessons. YPO was set up in the 1970s to help schools save money, and we’ll continue to work with our partners and the education sector to add value in every way we can.”
Liz Filer, Head teacher at Valentine Primary School, said: “I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Twinkl and YPO for their amazing generosity and support. We were blown away when we read the list of items that are being donated. Although this will not solve our funding crisis, it will make a real difference to the staff and children at Valentine Primary. Children will now have some lovely new resources which will put a smile on the faces of staff here. We are very grateful for this support.”
The full list of items provided by Twinkl and YPO is:
100 Glue sticks
24 Tubes of paint
60 Crayons
50 Oil pastels
64 Pairs of scissors
2 Dictionaries
76 Packs of post-it notes
10 Staple removers
20 Tubs of Play-Doh
1,000 Lolly sticks
144 Pencils
100 Rulers
165 Mirrors
100 Protractors
100 Erasers
100 Assorted colours whiteboard pens
100 Black whiteboard pens
25 Paint brushes
120 Felt-tip pens
200 Black handwriting pens
100 Pencil sharpeners
2 Thesauruses
160 Card collage materials
75 Glue spreaders
16 Rolls of Sellotape
4 Sellotape dispensers
5 DC adaptor plugs
50 Permanent markers
100 White chalks
100 Assorted colours chalks
288 Colouring pencils
48 Packs of Blu-tack
36 Pencil cases
9 Rolls of masking tape
1,000 Split pins
400 Sheets of Tracing paper
24 Pots of Glitter
50 Clarinet reeds
Second-hand instruments - 1 violin, 2 x guitars
Total: 5,030 items
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