Wokingham

Pupils from Wokingham Addington Special School netted a new minibus and a celebrity royal visit on Tuesday (June 6) which sets the wheels in motion for educational trips for the years to come.

Newly promoted Reading Football Club’s manager Steve Coppell joined pupils and staff at Wokingham Addington Special School, and got behind the steering wheel before handing over the keys to the joint chairs of Addington’s Association Barbie Takyar and Heather Young.

The Wokingham school – based on Loddon Bridge Road in Woodley – have had a Variety Club minibus for many years but the time had come for an upgrade. The Variety Club and Vodafone offered to help and support the school on their quest and Addington’s Association set to work to raise their half of the funds needed for a new bus. The Wokingham school raised over £15,000 over two years and they now have a brand new 17-seater bus which all the pupils will benefit from.

Joint chairs of Addington’s Association, Barbie and Heather, took on the mammoth task of fundraising by organising craft fairs, coffee mornings, summer and Christmas fairs to name just a few.

Liz Meek, Wokingham headteacher, said: “I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who kindly donated money for our new minibus. Everyone has helped make our dream of a new bus a reality and we are extremely grateful to everyone for their fundraising efforts. I would like to extend my thanks to Barbie and Heather, who spent the past two years organising events to help fund our new bus.

“The school is very grateful for the donations received by the Variety Club and Vodafone –without their generous support we would not have this minibus which the whole school community will now benefit from.

“The bus is superb. It is much bigger and better that the old one and it allows us to transport the pupils in wheelchairs as well as other pupils in seats. We study the environment in our lessons and by having our own transport it means that we can do this in a safe and comfortable way.”

Wokingham District Council