Member Article

100% attendance wins pupils a First Class night at the panto

Children from 14 primary schools in North Tyneside and Northumberland enjoyed a First Class evening of pantomime at an exclusive show of Mother Goose.

Supply teaching agency First Class Supply snapped up every ticket for the Thursday community performance at Seaton Delaval Arts Centre, then organised a competition to allocate the 150 tickets to children and their parents.

First Class Supply co-director Lesley Robinson said: “Last year we supported the local pantomime and had an amazing evening. Afterwards I was talking to one of our teachers who was there.

“She had talked to her children about the pantomime. Sadly some of the kids were telling her they couldn’t afford to go to a show like that, so I thought if we were in a position to offer the opportunity to donate tickets for a performance to give to schools, then we would.”

Whitley Bay-based First Class Supply, which is the region’s largest and fastest-growing independent teaching supply agency, contacted the primary schools it works with to decide how best to allocate the tickets. In the end, children from 14 schools in North Tyneside & Northumberland who hadn’t missed a day’s lessons were chosen to attend the special show with a parent and their brothers and sisters.

Lesley said: “We sponsor football strips to schools that we partner, and we are also major sponsors of the Newcastle United Foundation, but this was the first time we’ve ever done anything like this. It’s nice to put something back.”

St Joseph’s Primary in North Shields was one of the lucky schools. It chose three pupils aged eight, nine and 10 to attend the pantomime.

School business manager, Maureen Lott, said: “We were given 10 tickets which allowed three families to go and enjoy the pantomime.

“One child from each family had 100% attendance records. We had quite a few children to choose from so the head teacher drew them out of a hat. It was especially generous of First Class Supply to provide the tickets.

“The parents came in to see us on Friday and they said they had a really enjoyable time.”

First Class Supply has been providing high quality teachers to North East schools since 2004. The agency prides itself in matching the right teacher to the right school and employs two former head teachers to interview all candidates. As almost 5% of the UK teaching force is made up of supply teachers at any one time, finding the right people to fill temporary roles plays a vital part in students’ long-term education.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Astute.Work .