06 Jan Success stories, highlights, The London Marathon and much more…..

Happy New Year and wishing our loyal clients and superb supply staff all the very best for 2020!

The Teachers’ Hub has been operational for 6 months now and I thought that this would be the perfect time to re-cap, share some success stories, highlight some of our initiatives and share our fundraising page for London 2020. Grab yourself a cup of tea, a digestive biscuit dunks perfectly well, and lets begin….

Firstly lets re-cap, I am still absolutely blown away by the loyalty of our clients and candidates and I can not thank you enough. This journey, to make The Teachers’ Hub a reality (While looking after my newborn baby – insert girl power emoji) is by far my greatest achievement in my career and I have to thank my loyal clients and wonderful supply staff, The Teachers’ Hub would still be a dream if it wasn’t for you and so thank you.

Throughout the past 6 months, we have successfully been supporting schools and academies throughout Derbyshire with their day to day and long-term supply needs, we have exceeded our plan and remain in a strong position as we head into the new term. In our peak week, we had 25 candidates out working for us, ranging from qualified teachers to cover supervisors which is a fantastic achievement for our first 6 months and a good benchmark for the future. Recruitment is an ongoing process and we hope to double our availability in the next 6 months via our candidate attraction strategies and on-boarding processes.

We have been able to help our schools in other ways too; as we talk to our schools/academies and the relationship grows we find that other requirements are highlighted to us. A good example is when I went to visit one of our schools, who no longer have the facility for supply teachers to buy food on-site, and the cover manager was concerned for their needs i.e. if a half-day booking extended to a full day, they wouldn’t be able to buy lunch on-site. We came to the conclusion that a supply box of non-perishable foods would solve this problem, as supply staff can have free access if needed for their lunch should a morning be extended – the school did not have the budget for this. Therefore, I went shopping and donated lunch! I pulled together a supply box full of non-perishable foods i.e. soup, tea, coffee, crisps, biscuits, noodles, etc. and I was absolutely delighted to have been able to help, we will continue to top up the supply box for the school as an ongoing service.

Another initiative that is close to the values of The Teachers’ Hub, and we were more than happy to get involved in, was The Eco-Project. The students were asked to present their ideas on how the school could improve its environmental impact? It was such an exciting day as I sat on the judging panel and listened to their ideas, from a bee-friendly roof to recycling coffee beans, rainwater collection and vegetarian days on the menu! The students were inspiring, and it was incredibly difficult to pick a winner, however, we did, and l was delighted to present an i-pad mini to the winner which we gladly donated. It was clear to us all on the panel that the students did not take part in the project for the prize, they did so to air their views and make a stand for change – I am looking forward to seeing how the ideas are put into place.

We have also donated water to another school for their sports day. Following the Eco-Project it came clear to me that we must find better ways of supporting projects like sports day water donations, and this year we will find a solution that makes the donation environmentally friendly by using less plastic.

And finally, some of you may be aware that I am currently in training for The London Marathon 2020, yep it’s cold and dark but I am hitting the roads! I am running with Barney (My fur baby) and often buggy running too which is good company and I just hope that I manage London without my buddies…. I am hoping to raise some money for Derby Hospital as a thank you from Charlotte, Henry, Hannah and I. Derby Hospital gave me three healthy babies and I cannot thank them enough for the love and care they gave me and my babies. You can read more information here and if you would like to make a donation you can do so here:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/rebecca-lomax