Cash Strapped Schools get a $193K Injection

18th April 2013

News Release

Cash Strapped Schools get a $193K Injection

Warehouse Stationery supports Kiwi Schools

Schools and Early Childhood Centres across New Zealand have their local communities and Warehouse Stationery to thank for $193,700 worth of school supplies, redeemable with points from the Support your School initiative.

Figures released today show that since November 2011 New Zealanders have raised $193,000 through Warehouse Stationery’s Support your School programme. That’s enough money to buy 70,436 glue sticks or 14,957 staplers!

Pejman Okhovat, Chief Executive of Warehouse Stationery, says schools have tight budgets and they need to focus on important things like paying staff and building more classrooms, but the small stuff that makes everything tick and learning more engaging is important too.

“We know that restocking art supplies and getting extra resources is hard for schools, especially with the need to keep up with new technology, so we developed the Support your School programme to help make this much easier,” says Okhovat.

The programme is growing from strength to strength; this year alone more than $111,000 worth of Support your School points have been raised for schools through the programme and it continues to grow.

With these points schools have bought everything from educational flash cards and pencils to furniture and computers. Since January this year, New Zealanders have raised enough points to buy scanners for 557 classes or give 318 teachers tablets for their classroom.

During 2013 95 per cent of all primary and secondary schools have received Support your School points, so the programme is definitely having an impact on schools’ bottom line.

In part this is because the programme is so simple and straightforward to support; people don’t have to spend anything above the cost of their shopping to donate points and they can donate their points any time of the year on virtually anything they buy. They also don’t need to quote any specific codes or produce any vouchers; it’s as easy as naming their school of choice.

The Support your School Programme was extended to Early Childhood Centres in November 2012 and already Centres around the country are benefiting, such as Mangere Bridge Kindergarten and Te Awamutu Playcentre.

Brenda McCab, Office Manager at St Teresa’s School in Wellington, says she really likes the Support your School programme because it allows her school to buy things they normally wouldn’t be able to.

“The Support your School programme enables us to buy ‘extras’. Our fundraising committee chooses from the available rewards and we often purchase stationery and other items to support our fundraising efforts. We also purchase prizes and rewards for our pupils and buy big items like iPods to use as prizes in our school raffles,” says McCab.

Another way that schools are using the Support your School programme is by providing Warehouse Stationery gift cards to teachers so they can buy resources as they need them.

“From our conversations with teachers around the country, we know that lots of them spend their own money on classroom supplies, so Support your School is definitely helping fill a gap in funding,” says Okhovat.

Ends

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