A secondary school in Mapperley has reached into its own pocket to provide free uniforms food and trips to help families through the cost of living crisis.
The Wells Academy is providing hundreds of pounds’ worth of free equipment including school blazers, ties, calculators, musical instrument lessons, food and even trips.
Marcus Shepherd, principal of the school on Ransom Drive has been the driving force behind the measures, saying he does not ever want cost to be a barrier to young people benefiting from a full range of opportunities during their time at secondary school.
“I myself grew up in a single parent family, and now I’ve become a principal, I think it’s very important that opportunity is for everybody,” he said.
“Some people may say that we are only talking about a little bit of money for some of these items, but I know that for my family, a little bit was a lot.”
All new year seven students, plus anyone joining The Wells Academy in another year group, are now given a free school blazer and tie. These items can cost parents around the £30 mark for the blazer and six or seven pounds on top for the tie.
All students are also given their first calculator, plus a reading book, and revision guides for years 10 and 11.
The academy also provides free ingredients for food tech lessons; offers a free outward bound residential trip; year sevens benefit from free food for the first two weeks and there is no charge for any extra curricular clubs. Pupils even have the opportunity for free instrument lessons outside of the school’s normal music curriculum. It all adds up to hundreds of pounds worth of benefits.
Mr Shepherd said: “Once you make money a barrier, you are creating a barrier that shouldn’t be there. If one student cannot do something like an instrument lesson because their family is struggling financially, it’s not right, and it’s not fair.
“But the point that I also make to my students is that providing equipment to them free of charge also brings responsibility with it too. Once I provide you with a free calculator, as we do, then it’s then that student’s responsibility to look after it. The Wells Academy provides the equipment, and we expect our pupils to show us the respect of looking after it and bringing it to classes.
The Wells Academy has funded the raft of free opportunities from its own school budget, plus some funding streams that have become available to as a result of the need for pupils to catch up with their learning as the UK emerges from the Covid pandemic.
The Wells Academy opened under its own name in September 2020 having previously been a campus of Nottingham Academy.
