St Sampson's students top up on education

Students at St Sampson’s Secondary School are being offered a chance to talk more as a reward for good work, with the help of Cable & Wireless.

For the past few months the school has been giving out mobile phone top-up cards as an incentive to students. Anyone achieving five merit points is given a draw ticket which is automatically entered into a prize draw, each half term in each year group with the opportunity to win up to £20 worth of calls or texts. The more merits they get the more chance they have of winning.

Cable & Wireless is supplying the top up cards free of charge as a trial, and staff at the school are hailing the initiative as a great success.

Senior teacher Colin Watson said the school was always looking for new ways in which to motivate students and encourage them to achieve their best.

‘The system we had in place was quite successful, but we wanted to increase the incentives to encourage even more effort. That is when we hit upon the idea of top-up cards,’ he said.

‘A lot of students now have mobile phones. The offer of free credit has proved to be a great incentive.’

Marketing manager for Cable & Wireless Steve Eldridge said the company had been impressed by the ingenuity of the project and was pleased the school had approached them for support.

‘It is a great idea and the end result has been really positive. Education is a key element of Cable & Wireless’ commitment to encourage students in their learning. Tapping into something that appeals to the latest trends works and we fully support the initiative,’ he said.

Cable & Wireless are inviting other schools interested in launching the scheme to contact them direct for further details.