Educational supply specialist comes to rescue of school in national headlines for asking parents for donations

An educational supply specialist has come to the rescue of a school that hit the national headlines after asking parents to contribute to vital classroom resources.

Robert Piggott CE School in Theresa May’s Maidenhead constituency in Berkshire, was in the news after changes to school funding meant the school and governing body, after consultation with parents, decided to ask parents for a donation of £1 per school day, per child, to cover the costs of teaching resources and books.

When David Pickering, Managing Director of Lancashire based EPSL Educational Printing, read about the school’s plight he contacted the infant and junior schools to offer them a year’s supply of free, personalised exercise books, reading records and diaries.

He said: “Schools across the UK are struggling to make ends meet due to changes in funding and we believe that every child should have access to quality books to help them with their studies.

“The story about Robert Piggott School highlights this issue and I hope our donation will be a real boost to the pupils, teachers and staff.

“I was thrilled when they accepted our offer of personalised exercise books, diaries and reading records and I look forward to hearing feedback from our ultimate judges — the children!”

Mrs Akers, Executive Headteacher added: “The media attention following our request for voluntary contributions was rather unexpected, as we are not the first school to have to resort to this sort of request.

“We were thrilled to receive the call from EPSL Educational Printing offering us a very generous donation of a year’s supply of exercise books, diaries and reading records.  To learn that the stationery is also embossed with our school logo is wonderful.

“I am sure the children will be very proud of their new high quality books and will produce their best work to go in them.

“Thank you to EPSL Educational Printing for our rather unexpected and very special early Christmas present.”

EPSL Educational Printing has provided more than 5,300 personalised books including exercise books, diaries and reading records to Robert Piggott Junior and Infant school.

Each item was designed, printed and collated in the company’s state-of-the-art Blackburn facility in Lancashire.

EPSL Educational Printing was founded in 1975 by former teacher Fred Pickering. He was succeeded by his son David in 2002 and the company now provides millions of exercise books and ancillary products to thousands of schools across the UK.