Castle Tower School Gets Ready to Play with Power NI

Castle Tower School has received a £300 community grant from Power NI, Northern Ireland’s leading energy supplier.

The Ballymena based school was nominated to receive the community funding by Power NI employee, Aine Kearney, as part of the company’s staff sponsorship scheme ‘Helping Hands’. This gives employees the opportunity to nominate local groups and organisations to receive funding. Thanks to the donation, the school was able to purchase a range of sensory toys and games.

Castle Tower is the only school in the Ballymena area that caters for children with special educational needs, providing pupils from the age of three to 19 with a varying rage of learning difficulties, an environment to help grow confidence and learn key life skills.

Power NI are delighted to support Castle Tower School by providing funding for new sensory toys and games which will be used to help children relax, focus and calm down to different scenarios that may occur within the classroom. These toys will encourage natural play, developing key social learning skills like negotiating, planning, and sharing.

Grateful for the funding Aine commented:

“Due to the kind generosity of £300 from Power NI, Castle Tower school in Ballymena have been able to purchase a range of sensory toys and games. These will have a major impact on the children’s daily learning and will also be a source of fun too! The Helping Hands scheme is an excellent initiative, and it has made such a difference to both pupils and staff. It is great to remind people that even though we are going through tough times there is still a sense of community in us all.”

Treasurer of PFSA. Gillian commented:

“As a member of the Parents, Friends and Staff Association of Castle Tower School, we really appreciate the generous financial support from Power NI. In such difficult times as the current pandemic, it is so hard to fundraise for our special needs school, which continually requires additional resources for our fabulous children. The kind support and thoughtfulness from Power NI, will help the teaching staff to provide vital resources.”