NEWS


Manchester school celebrates loyalty scheme windfall


The Co-op Academy Manchester is celebrating a bumper windfall of £708.32 to spend on resources thanks to a public sector loyalty scheme which sees profits shared with over 13,000 customers across the UK. YPO, one of the UK’s largest public sector buying organisations, is


rewarding schools with a share of £1.57 million through its Share of Profits Loyalty Scheme. Profits are given back to its public sector customers based on how much they spend on resources each year. YPO’s managing director Simon Hill said, “With budgets at a breaking


point, schools are facing the persistent challenge of balancing providing an exceptional education with the pressure of keeping costs low. We’re delighted to play a part in helping schools that regularly buy equipment and resources from us by offering them a share of our profits through our longstanding loyalty scheme. “Through this scheme, we’re able to offer a significant bonus to schools,


which enables teachers to allocate funds into reinvestments projects they think would benefit their pupils the most.” Co-op Academy Manchester is just one of the schools benefitting from


YPO’s loyalty scheme this year. Co-op Academy’s Lee Davies, Director of Digital, Community & Comms said “We were delighted to receive our vouchers through YPO’s Share of Profits Loyalty Scheme. The vouchers have been invaluable for our school, helping us to reinvest in the school’s resources and our pupils’ futures.” Since its introduction in 2011, the loyalty scheme has given back almost


£13.1 million to YPO customers in the public sector. uwww.ypo.co.uk/loyaltyscheme


Toolkit to improve early literacy skills across region


An Emerging Literacy Toolkit developed as one of the Northern Alliance’s key workstreams has been designed to help improve early literacy skills across the region. Recently endorsed by all eight participating local authorities, the


toolkit was developed by James Cook, Depute Head Teacher of Milton of Leys Primary School in Inverness. James was seconded to the regional improvement collaborative and recently returned to teaching after completing the toolkit. James’ work has been extremely well-received by teachers, early


years practitioners, councillors and senior education officials. In explaining what drives his passion for improving literacy skills, James explained: “Literacy, language and communication skills are a passport to life and work. Having worked closely with occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and educational psychologists to develop the networks of practice across the Northern Alliance, I’ve had my eyes opened to the wealth of skills that children require to succeed in reading and writing. “It’s great that we’ve had the opportunity to create and launch the


Emerging Literacy Whole School Toolkit so that early years practitioners and teachers can enhance the life chances of children and young people through developing new knowledge and skills through the professional learning.” As well as designing and facilitating professional learning networks,


James has provided direct bespoke support for schools, facilitated strategic planning sessions for senior management, and made it possible for all of those he has worked with to shape the creation of the new toolkit.


uFind the toolkit at: http://bit.ly/EmergingLiteracyToolkit


Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays launch Passport to Change


Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays have launched a new programme with their charity partner, WE, aimed at empowering young people to fulfil their potential through education and build skills for the future. The new three-year programme, Passport to


Change, will utilise WE’s STEM-based (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) educational resources and will focus on increasing student engagement with the soft skills needed for any career: problem solving; argumentation; critical thinking; creativity; action-planning and leadership. Initially it will focus on three schools in three of


Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays’ communities: Thomas Bennett Community College in Crawley, Pentrehafod School in Swansea and Luther J Price Middle School in Atlanta. As part of the programme, Virgin Atlantic and


Virgin Holidays’ colleagues will be sharing their stories and experience of the world of work through giving career talks, workshops and one- to-one mentoring. It is expected than more than 1,000 students will have been engaged with Passport to Change by the end of the third year. The Passport to Change programme is part of a


wider initiative at the airline to encourage more women and young people to pursue STEM and


8 www.education-today.co.uk November 2019


aviation careers. Virgin Atlantic has teamed up with Barbie to show girls a variety of careers in STEM and aviation and remind them they can be anything. Virgin and Barbie created three one-of- a kind dolls to celebrate the partnership: pilot, engineer and cabin crew.


uhttps://corporate.virginatlantic.com/ gb/en/sustainability/programme- overview/partners/uk-school- programme.html


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