Greggs CEO Roisin Currie helped The Greggs Foundation to mark the opening of its 800th Breakfast Club last week. The milestone Breakfast Club has opened its doors at Baildon Glen Primary School, in Shipley, part of Exceed Academies Trust, and will offer 168 children a free breakfast to help pupils prepare for the school day ahead. Breakfast options include toast, fruit and yoghurt and will ensure no child experiences hunger as a barrier to learning in the classroom.
As well as providing a nutritious morning meal, the daily breakfast club offers time for children to chat and engage with school staff before their classes begin. With the cost-of-living crisis continuing to impact children and families throughout the UK, the Greggs Foundation offers all schools in its breakfast club network access to a hardship fund. The fund helps those in financial crisis with support for food, clothing and energy vouchers, as well as essential home appliances. Launched in 1999, the Greggs Foundation’s Breakfast Club programme has grown to serve wholesome, free breakfasts to around 49,500 children every school day.
Ms Currie added: “No child should ever start their day without breakfast, which is why we pledged to open 1,000 Breakfast Clubs by 2025. It’s an honour to have opened our 800th Club in Shipley this morning, and to meet the pupils who will benefit from it. Our Breakfast Club programme has been running for over 20 years, and we look forward to continuing to support our local communities and meeting our goal to help provide breakfast to 70,000 children every day by the end of 2025.”
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Tech sector support organisation Sunderland Software City (SSC) has issued a call to the region’s digital technology community to help a Gateshead school realise its dreams of international robotics excellence. Bill Quay Primary School’s VEX Robotics Team is seeking sponsorship to fund hopes of competing at the forthcoming VEX Robotics World Championships, set to take place in Texas next month. VEX Robotics is an international robot-building programme that provides children with exciting, open-ended robotics challenges that enhance their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills through hands-on, student-centred learning.
During this academic year, Bill Quay pupils have taken part in numerous VEX IQ competitions throughout the North East which led to them competing in the national finals in Telford in March where they qualified to compete in the world championships. They approached SSC to help fund their journey and tap into the region’s tech community for support.
Jamie Hardesty, head of communications and stakeholder engagement at SSC, said: “What pupils at Bill Quay have achieved so far in their robotics journey is incredible. We are determined to help them showcase their talents on the international stage and get them to Texas. It’s a privilege to sponsor them and we hope other North East technology organisations can follow suit and lend their support too.”
Bill Quay’s ICT Lead Gina Dye added: “We are in shock as to how well our pupils have done because this competition and opportunity is massive. We are one of only four UK schools aiming to get to Texas and I can’t stress enough how much the children deserve this. They are in my classroom every lunchtime building and problem-solving, it really is inspiring.”
Ward Hadaway has teamed up with The University of Law to provide all of its future trainee solicitors with SQE training. The firm’s trainees across Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle will be enrolled onto the University’s SQE LLM programme, which prepares students for their SQE1 and SQE2 exams as well as additional study content that many law firms desire when recruiting trainees including key practice areas (KPAs) and enhanced skills.
The new partnership enhances the existing people-centred talent and development programme Ward Hadaway has established that’s tailored specifically to meet the needs of trainees. The firm fully invests in each trainee to ensure they’re equipped with the skills and attributes they need to follow successful and rewarding careers. Last year, Ward Hadaway recruited 13 trainee solicitors and one solicitor apprentice as it continues to expand its workforce. The appointments follow a strong financial year for Ward Hadaway where firm-wide growth increased by 11%.
Matt Cormack, training principal at Ward Hadaway, said: “We are really impressed with the breadth of the programme provided by The University of Law which covers technical, commercial and behavioural learning. It is vital that we equip our future trainees with the skills they need to provide service excellence to our clients. With 38% of our current management board having trained with Ward Hadaway, we understand how to provide trainees with a good grounding in the skills required for future leadership and management roles.”
Matthew Tomlinson, Dean of Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle campus, The University of Law added: “Ward Hadaway has a brilliant solicitor training programme which gives their trainees a varied exposure to high quality work. Our SQE Masters is designed to not only thoroughly prepare students to get through the SQE exams, but also provide extensive additional content to ensure that they are ready to start their qualifying work experience and can make valuable contributions from day one.”
Newcastle-based insurance broker Lycetts is inviting people to nominate a good cause to receive £1,000 as part of Benefact Group’s Movement for Good Awards. Now in its fifth year, the Movement for Good Awards will see more than £1m gifted to charities in the UK and Ireland.
While the pandemic and the current economic crisis has had an adverse effect on cash donations, the amount of people choosing to volunteer their time for a good cause is rising. Winners will be drawn at random and the more times a charity is nominated the more chance it has of being selected. The 150 winning charities will be announced from June 1, with a further 150 revealed in September. More gifts will also be awarded throughout the year.
Mark Hews, group chief executive at Benefact Group, said: “We know that £1,000 can make a huge difference and we are immensely proud to be supporting many hundreds of charities. Owned by a charity ourselves, charitable giving is at the heart of what we do, and all of our available profits go to good causes. With financial strain continuing to impact many households, the Movement for Good Awards represents a great way for people to continue to support, without worrying about an additional cost.”
Lycetts chief executive, Charles Foster, said: “The Movement for Good Awards has given more than £4m since the initiative started. People have submitted an incredible 1.75 million nominations, and more than 2,000 charities have benefited from valuable donations.”
North Tyneside Business Forum has announced that its chair Karen Goldfinch and vice chair Andrew Esson are stepping down. The pair are stepping down at the end of a three-year term in the voluntary roles, serving the business community, after helping to raise the profile of the forum locally, regionally and nationally. Ms Goldfinch, who previously served as vice chair for three years, has been a member of the management group since the forum was founded in 2010.
Her experience in business spans almost 40 years, having previously been Whitley Bay Chamber of Trade Chair and owning retail outlets in the town. She currently owns two businesses, wedding stationery and events management firm Made to Treasure Events and business consultancy Karen Goldfinch - Your Business Pilot.
Vice chair Andrew Esson, a semi-retired chartered engineer, offers non-executive, advisory and consultancy services with a focus on business transformation and operational improvement.
During the pair’s tenure, the Forum has seen membership grow from 1,100 members to almost 2,000 and it has previously been awarded the Spirit of North Tyneside award for ‘outstanding contribution to North Tyneside’.
John Sparkes, director of regeneration and economic development at North Tyneside Council said: “Both Karen and Andrew have been great ambassadors for the forum and have supported local businesses with advice on grants and been the link between businesses and the council, and I’m sure they will be sorely missed. They were particularly supportive during the pandemic, working tirelessly to get grants out to affected businesses.”
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