STUDENTS at a Carlisle secondary school have new tote bags to store their books in thanks to a local company.
Solutions experts Eco, based in Annan and Cumbria, gave the brightly-coloured tote bags to Trinity School in the city so that students had something in which to put their books at the end of the school day.
Since the reopening of the school in September following the Covid-19 lockdown, students in years seven, eight and nine are taught in year group ‘bubbles’ which means they remain in the same classroom for all their lessons apart from PE, and leave their books on their desks, rather than taking them all home.
Assistant headteacher, Jemma Leech, said this had led to a build up of books on desks, which made it more difficult for disinfecting and cleaning.
“We didn’t want to ask the students to bring additional bags into school, which would add another risk factor, so we were absolutely delighted when Eco approached us with an offer to provide tote bags for all of our Key Stage Three students,” she said.
“The bags look fantastic and the kids love them. They have made a real difference because they allow the students to store everything in one place and keep the classrooms looking tidy. It also ensures we are able to clean the classrooms more efficiently at the end of each school day.”
The bespoke tote bags, which feature the logos of Trinity School and Eco, were delivered to a total of 850 students, with almost 300 handed out to each of the three year groups.
Jemma said: “It’s been lovely for the students to know they are getting something from a local business who wanted to help them. It was the perfect solution.”
Mike Jefferson, director and head of Eco’s Comms division for Communications and IT, heard that Trinity School needed storage bags for its students and wanted to help.
Mike said: “I knew the team at Eco would want to help so we got in touch with the school and came up with a solution together. The tote bags are a useful addition to the classrooms, and were a simple and practical solution to the problem.
“It’s important that we do everything we can to support the community at this time, and we were happy to help.”
Eco has received national acclaim for the way it has responded to the pandemic to help care homes and other businesses. The company delivered one million items of PPE to UK care homes within seven days at the start of the outbreak, and its emergency rapid response solutions division includes provision of testing pods, hygiene portals, thermal imaging cameras, PPE and sanitiser.
