Gareth Williams - Executive Headteacher for LiFE Multi Academy Trust, Charley Gibbons - Director of Customer Experience at Orbit, Dave Bennett - Headteacher at The Winstanley School and Fraser Danvers - SHINE Centre Lead.
The SHINE centre educates young people who have struggled to thrive at mainstream schools.
The centre has specialist staff who create a personalised curriculum to cater for the individual needs of each student and an important part of this is education outside of the classroom and engagement with their local community.
The ‘sunshine coach’ has been provided by children’s charity, Variety, who offer specially adapted, accessible transport for schools working with disabled or disadvantaged children and young people.
The SHINE centre applied to Variety for a ‘sunshine coach’ but needed to raise £12,000 to meet the requirements.
The centre serves one of our communities, so match funding was agreed, and we provided the centre with a £12,000 grant for the new coach.
Charley Gibbons, Orbit’s Director of Customer Experience, added: “Playing an active role in our communities is important to us in order to best serve our customers, and that is why when the SHINE centre approached us for funding, we were more than happy to help.
“As part of our new customer promise, Orbit has pledged to bring positive change to places and communities, providing support to improve wellbeing and independence. The £12,000 grant we have provided to the SHINE centre will encourage young people to play a positive role in the local community and enrich their learning opportunities, allowing access to alternative provisions to help with their future employment opportunities.”
