Children in Kilbirnie who missed out on months of school due to the COVID-19 lockdown, have been given a positive reminder of their year.
All pupils at St Bridget’s Primary School who were forced to spend the final weeks of the spring term and all of the summer term learning at home, have been given a special T-shirt thanks to an idea from headteacher Dennis Hopkins.
Each T-shirt has ‘I’ve graduated from Inmahoose Primary’ emblazoned on the front, and it’s hoped they’ll be a keepsake of this most unusual of times for the children, thanks to funding from Community Windpower.
Mr Hopkins said: “It’s been a very unusual and often very challenging year for us all. During the period of lockdown, the children and their families did so well to stay engaged with the school staff and with their learning.
“We adopted the name of Inmahoose Primary to make sure that parents knew that we weren’t expecting them to be teachers but only facilitators of the activities we were sending from school.
“We really wanted to give all of children something positive and fun to remember it by, rather than the memory of being stuck indoor for weeks and months.
“While the idea was approved by the Parent Council, the money to pay for the T-shirt was something they couldn’t afford, which is when we turned to Community Windpower and Ranger Pete.
“They both fully supported the idea and provided funding of more than £1,000 so we could buy T-shirts for all pupils, something for which everyone is really grateful.
“Community Windpower and Ranger Pete have been providing support to us for a number of years, and in so many different ways from the donation of Christmas trees and transport costs, to the delivery of so many in-class sessions from Pete himself.
“As a whole school community we’re extremely appreciative of this, however, I do hope this is the only set of T-shirts we have to design.”
Diane Wood, community benefits director at Community Windpower, which operates the Millour Hill and Dalry Community Wind Farms in North Ayrshire, said: “This is a fantastic idea by Dennis to provide a positive reminder of what must have been a very confusing time for the children.
“When we found out about it, we didn’t hesitate in providing the funding and we’ll continue to support the school and pupils in the coming years.
“We hope the children are now settled back into the new school routine and they don’t have to endure this type of situation again.”
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