An accountancy firm has launched a new initiative to support pupils as they work towards their maths GCSE.
JF Hornby & Co has pledged to provide hundreds of scientific calculators to secondary schools across the area, helping to ensure no pupil goes without in the vital years leading up to their Year 11 examinations.
Via its Calculator Club, the company will work with schools to make sure they have a bank of spare calculators available for learners who need to borrow one.
Paul Hornby, managing director of JF Hornby & Co, said: “It’s no secret that schools operate within the constraints of challenging budgets and sometimes do not have the funds to do everything they would like to.
“Equally, many families are feeling the pinch and often do not have surplus money to cover additional ad hoc items. A scientific calculator is a basic but essential piece of equipment for GCSE maths.
“If a pupil does not have reliable access to one, it can put them at an immediate disadvantage. The JF Hornby Calculator Club is about removing that barrier and making sure no young person is held back for such a simple reason.”
The initiative will be funded via the Hornby Foundation, the charitable arm of JF Hornby & Co, which has donated over £400,000 to charities, not‑for‑profit organisations and sports clubs since being launched more than a decade ago.
Between now and the start of the new school year in September, the Hornby team will work with official providers of approved calculators to build a stock reserve.
Schools are being invited to contact the team to discuss their needs, with an upper limit of 50 calculators per school in place.
The scheme will cover schools in Barrow, Millom, Dalton, Ulverston and the southern Lake District.
The Calculator Club comes as the JF Hornby team prepare to deliver a fifth successive year of financial education lessons to primary and secondary school pupils via the Hornby Money Club.
Any school interested in getting involved in either initiative should, in the first instance, email [email protected] with either Calculator Club of Money Club in the subject lin
