Lidl Isle of Sheppey (Opening 10/12/26)

We're a large primary school of 620 pupils and pride ourselves in our work with our community; we're striving to make the lives of families that we work with better. Unfortunately, we've a lot of families in need, nearly a quarter of our school population fall into the pupil premium category and we're looking for partners to enable our work to continue/grow. We are in one of the most deprived areas of Kent, there are fewer opportunities available to our children than those living elsewhere. We don't have a cinema, bowling alley or ice rink. There are few restaurants or other forms of local entertainment. There are no sports centres with running tracks, cycle parks or general amenities. There are limited opportunities for children to be around animals. We have a lack of infrastructure with regards to travel with only one main road linking the two ends of the island; consequently, some of our families have not ventured off of the island or to its different areas. There are many socio-economic barriers for our families and whilst we strive to support them through local food banks, Social Services and family charities, further help is very much needed. Our PTA subsidise school trips, offset educational activities and resell donated uniform for parents to purchase items at a much reduced price at the same time as raising funds. The PTA struggle to raise funds from those who are already struggling financially. Recently we have been hearing from families that they can only have items in food parcels that can be eaten cold as they cannot afford the gas and electricity to cook. They are even having to limit their children’s use of toilet paper in order to try to save a few pence, some of our parents have shared that they are not eating so that their children can. Therefore, we would be very grateful for any support that can be offered, whether this was food or non-food items; toiletries, cleaning products, shoes and clothes, school uniform, cooking equipment, gardening tools or materials for experimenting with, toys for use in school or at home. We would also be grateful for any financial donations that could be used in a variety of way for those families in dire situations. Our long term plan is to try and set up a community hub and cafe within our grounds that will enable parents to meet and share some of their experiences, come together to help one another and be supportive. It is our hope that this will provide career opportunities such as parents learning to manage the café or completing food hygiene courses so that they can transfer these skills to other places of work. We want to be able to offer opportunities for people to further their understanding of healthy lifestyles and have been talking about trying to offer fitness classes; we are willing to provide the space for this but we would need a partnership to help with supplying the expertise or delivering the classes.