Festival to help minibus appeal - The Worcester Observer

Festival to help minibus appeal

Worcester Editorial 12th Jun, 2018 Updated: 12th Jun, 2018   0

A PRIMARY school in the heart of Worcester will benefit from The Game Fair’s 60th anniversary this summer by being awarded funding towards a new minibus.

Fort Royal School has been chosen by organisers and its nominated charity, Lord Taverners, as the beneficiary of this year’s charitable fund-raising campaign.

It will receive up to £25,000 towards a new 16-seater wheelchair-accessible Ford minibus from various fund-raising ideas at the three-day countryside festival, being held at Ragley Hall, near Alcester, in Warwickshire from July 27 to 29.

Fort Royal School caters for children with disabilities and learning difficulties and has 230 pupils. The new £61,000 minibus, which has an automatic tail lift and removable seats, is one of two the school needs to replace its existing fleet.




Headteacher Ed Francis said: “Access to the community is an essential part of our curriculum because children need to see and experience the things that they are learning about. They also need to learn the skills they will need to use their local communities safely, such as awareness of dangers if they are to become independent adults.

“Minibuses are vital for this work, but our current fleet is getting very old and unreliable. Our two mini buses are 17 and 10 years old respectively. They are inefficient to run and expensive to maintain. We are very grateful to the Lord Taverners, The Game Fair and their supporters who have pledged to provide us with funding towards a new bus.”


The school’s grants and fund-raising manager, Margaret Jones, added: “We now need help to raise £16,000 towards the second over the next 12 months.

“We’ll be asking local businesses to help with various fund-raising activities, like dress-down days, raffles and sponsored events. We’ll also be inviting businesses to ‘buy a seat’, which would have a small plaque engraved on it with the name and logo of the benefactor as a lasting reminder of their support.”

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