School partnerships

We work with many schools through our volunteering programme and in support of literacy and financial literacy education and access to the workplace. We have plans to create further formal school partnerships in the coming year in other communities where our offices are based.

Ark Kings Academy

We have a formal partnership with Ark Kings Academy based in Kings Norton, Birmingham, supporting both the primary and secondary phases with pupils aged five through to 16 years. The school's mission is to enable every pupil to succeed, by creating an environment in which they can thrive, both academically and socially.

Our school partnership commenced in 2017 and activities undertaken in that period include:

Cost-of-Living sponsorship to fund new uniform
Sponsorship of online learning platform providing modules relating to financial education, wellbeing and sustainability
Design and funding of their Phoenix Library
Colleague volunteering supporting literacy and financial literacy education and improving insight into future career choices through networking
Sponsorship of a maths teacher for a one-year period
Contribution towards the running costs of Place2Be mental health service onsite
Work experience opportunities
Resource donations
Donation of table-tennis tables, gym equipment and PE tops bearing school’s logo

Ferryhill Primary School

We launched our partnership with Ferryhill Primary school in December 2021. The school is a 30-minute drive from our Edinburgh office in heart of the Drylaw and Telford communities, with over 300 primary-aged pupils registered onsite. For 20% of pupils, English is not their first language. More than 20 different languages are spoken, including French and Spanish which are studied by pupils in the classroom.

Activities we have undertaken so far:

Cost-of-Living sponsorship towards funding onsite community shelf, giving access to food and essential household items, in addition to supporting the cost of their free toast for all scheme
Sponsorship of online learning platform providing modules relating to financial education and wellbeing
Sponsorship of virtual learning programme
Colleague volunteering supporting financial literacy education and forest clearance to aid learning

We continue to meet regularly with the school to review activities which will be of mutual benefit. The school has a well-established outdoor learning and bio-diversity focus for pupils, so the Group will explore additional activities to help establish, encourage and protect new wildlife and habitats.