Stafford schoolchildren to benefit from workbook donation to inspire budding creative writers as they return to school

Posted by james brindle | Published: 05/06/2020


Budding JK Rowling’s or Phillip Pullman’s at a Stafford school have been boosted with a donation of workbooks from Central England Co-op as they return to school for a shortened summer term.

The Western Membership and Community Council (MCC) at the retailer has donated 150 of the specially created creative writing workbooks to be given to Year 6 pupils at Veritas Primary Academy.

It is hoped the books will be a nice surprise for the pupils as they return following an easing of the Government’s lockdown restrictions and help get their creative juices flowing.

The school in Weston Road is near to Central England Co-op’s Brereton Way food store in the town and pupils helped to cut the ribbon on the store when it opened last year.

Since then, the retailer’s Membership and Community Relations Officer James Knight has built strong links with the school and was delighted to be able to make the donation of the books on behalf of the Western MCC.

He said: “It has been fantastic working with Veritas Primary Academy over the last 18 months and we have delivered healthy choices workshops and Fairtrade assemblies as part of our community work and educational programmes.

“During these uncertain times we have been unable to do our school visits so when the opportunity came for us to support Veritas with the donation of the books we were delighted to make it happen, particularly to give pupils a boost as they return to school this summer.

“The books enable the children to make notes, draw pictures and plan their work in a book that is not their school book. This means they can write freely, be truly creative and hopefully encouraged to enjoy writing.”

People can keep up to date with what is happening in their local community by visiting a dedicated online hub at www.centralengland.coop/updates

 

Notes to editors

About Central England Co-operative

Central England Co-operative is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK with interests in food, funeral, floral, travel and property investment.

Co-operatives have always been there for their communities; they were formed to protect them and help them flourish. 

Our 7,900 colleagues serving our Members and customers work hard to ensure that co-operative values, principles and spirit flow through everything we do to help support and improve our local communities.

Owned by hundreds of thousands of Members, we have over 430 trading outlets across 16 counties including West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. 

We are proud of our reputation for ethical business practices and corporate responsibility.

We invest a percentage of our trading profit into local communities through our Community Dividend Fund scheme, have donated over £1.3 million to our corporate charity partner Dementia UK and also operate a pioneering food redistribution partnership with FareShare Midlands so unsold food goes to those in need.

Visit www.centralengland.coop for more information or follow us on Facebook or Twitter using @mycoopfood

Press office contacts: Rob Smyth and James Brindle

Phone - 01543 421390

Email - publicrelations@centralengland.coop