School receives thousands of essential classroom items in answer to Christmas ‘wish-list’

Zoe Kirkby – Area Sales Manager – YPO
Liz Filer, Headteacher, Valentine Primary School
Children from Valentine Primary School

Valentine Primary School sent out list to parents for items such as rulers and pencils

● The entire list is now being delivered by educational providers Twinkl and YPO

Valentine Primary School in Sholing, Southampton, has received thousands of classroom supplies after two educational organisations answered its appeal for essential items such as glue sticks, pencils and chalk.

The school’s headteacher Liz Filer originally asked parents for help by sending them a donation ‘wish-list’ shortly before Christmas.

On hearing the story, the online educational resource publisher Twinkl immediately got in touch with its partner YPO, which provides products and services to schools, to source the items.

Thousands of items have now been delivered including 100 glue sticks, 64 pairs of scissors, 1,000 lolly sticks, 24 pots of glitter and 400 sheets of tracing paper. Over the next week everything on the list will be received by the school, a total of 5,030 items.

Twinkl produces online teaching resources used by schools and educators across the UK including schemes of work, assessments and online games.

Jonathan Seaton, Founder and CEO of Twinkl, said: “We are thrilled that through our partnership with YPO we were able to help make a difference to the staff and children at Valentine Primary School.

“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