Refinery grant is music to their ears

Fawley (8 June 2010) -- Waterside school children are discovering how to enjoy making music from their earliest days at school.

Wildground Infant School in Dibden Purlieu, which caters for children from four to seven years, has received a donation of £1,000 from Esso and ExxonMobil Chemical at Fawley, to buy samba drumming equipment, as well as a play sand and water tray for the reception classroom.

The donation was made in recognition of the time and effort the family of one ExxonMobil employee has put into volunteering with the school. The ExxonMobil scheme not only helps local organisations, but also improves the links between ExxonMobil and the local community.

The grant applicant was Chris Wall, who is the Lubricants specialist at ExxonMobil Engineering, based at Fawley. Chris’s wife Sarah works on a voluntary basis at the school several times a week.

Sarah said: “Schools have a very limited budget and grants of this sort enable them to provide extra equipment to enhance the education of the children. Over the years the school has benefited in lots of ways from the ExxonMobil volunteer scheme.”

Head teacher Amanda Mullett said: “The drums are a wonderful way of enabling even the youngest children to express themselves musically. The children are getting real pleasure out of the equipment, which is lovely to see. Education is all about having fun and this is a brilliant example of children learning through active and meaningful experience.”

The ExxonMobil Volunteer Involvement Programme at Fawley, together with its sister scheme for school governors, has so far contributed more than £500,000 to local community projects since it was started seven years ago.