Lots of jobs done and improvements made to Rugby's Paddox School by offenders completing community service

(L-R) Sonia Aldridge, Sue Chaplin and Dave Adams, Bella Leathley, Mark Pawsey.

Mr Pawsey and Bella Leathley – a colleague from his office - met with Dave Adams, head of Unpaid Work – West Midlands Region and Sue Chaplin, Probation Service officer.

The Community Payback Scheme enables those who have been sentenced to community service for minor offences to give something back to their local area. This can be through litter picks, graffiti removal or using their skills for general maintenance works – such as at Paddox Primary School.

At the school Mark and Bella saw how offenders have helped to repair fences, planted hedges and refurbished many of the schools’ benches.

They also heard from Paddox Primary School’s head of business, Sonia Aldridge, about how the participation in the scheme has mean that valuable funding which would otherwise have had to be allocated to these works has been freed up and can be prioritised for children’s education.

The Community Payback Scheme, which is run by the Probation Service, supervises people who have been sentenced to 40-300 hours of community service.

The aim of the scheme is to make it a visible punishment which enables offenders to give back to their communities in a constructive way.

Paddox headteacher Jane Le Poidevin, said: “We wanted to take the time and the opportunity to thank you for allowing a community payback team to work with us at Paddox Primary School in Rugby.

"David Morris has led the team so well and they have achieved so much for us already and there is still more work to do.

"They can achieve in a weekend what it would take us a term to do, as the essential day to day running of the school takes up all our time at the moment.

"The difference is that jobs that have been on the outstanding to do list for years, are now getting done and as a result we can focus more fully on the experiences we offer our children. I don't know whether there are many “thank yous” offered but I cannot stress enough how important this has been for us as a school, so a big thank you to David and his team.”