A Nottingham secondary academy is helping local families with the cost-of-living crisis by 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 Wells Academy on Ransom Drive in Mapperley, 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.
He said: “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. 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 given a free school blazer and tie. Typically in Nottingham, these items can cost parents around the £30 mark for the blazer and six or seven pounds on top for the tie.
In addition, all students are given their first calculator, plus a reading book, and revision guides for years 10 and 11. But the academy has not stopped there: students also do not have to pay for their ingredients in food tech lessons; there is a free outward bound residential trip; year sevens benefit from free food for the first two weeks, plus there is no charge for any extra curricular club. 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.
Year 9 students (l to r) Shepherd Ndlovu, Ebrima Keme and Dorian Rosiek at a food tech lesson at The Wells Academy, where ingredients are provided for free by the school so that parents don’t have to buy them.
Mr Shepherd said: “Once you make money a barrier, you are creating a barrier that shouldn’t be there. Actually, if it’s right for your curriculum, it’s right for your students, then it follows that every single student should be able to do it. Even 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. I know that when I was growing up, my mum saved a lot of money for me to have new shoes. I knew that it was then my job to not scuff them. Looking after things is important too, and that’s the message we try to instil in our students.”
The Wells Academy has funded the raft of free opportunities from its own school budget, plus some funding streams that have become available to schools as a result of the need for pupils to catch up with their learning as the UK emerges from the Covid pandemic.
Pupils at The Wells Academy have praised the school and its principal for making so many things available to them free of charge, with one saying it is “amazing” that opportunities are provided for families who may otherwise struggle to afford them.
The Wells Academy opened under its own name in September 2020 having previously been a campus of Nottingham Academy.
For further information please contact Lucy Stephens on 0771 983 9446 or email [email protected]
