Teacher Joanne's top class delivery

Joanne set a challenge for her Year 8 English class at Armfield Academy in South Shore, with food and drink from McDonalds as the prize – and hand delivered the goodies following a trip to the drive-through to the delight of the youngsters.

The 36-year-old tweeted a picture of herself from her car, with the words: “Been out delivering McDonald’s treats to hardworking @ArmfieldFCAT Year 8 students who’ve listened very carefully in their remote English lessons and spotted the ‘weird words’ I’d planted in there! Lovely end to a busy week.”

She came up with the idea as a way of keeping her pupils engaged during the current lockdown period, which has seen the majority of pupils working remotely from home.

Her efforts were encouraged and praised by the management at Armfield Academy and parent group Fylde Coast Academy Trust. where the period of remote learning is being supported by many positive recognition and reward initiatives in its 10 schools.

Joanne, who has worked at Armfield Academy since September 2019 after previously teaching at a number of other Fylde Coast schools including Lytham St Annes High and St Aidan’s, Preesall, said: “It’s important to keep the children engaged and interested in these rather different times and I just thought this would go down well.

“I have been challenging the pupils to come up with key words to drop into my English video lessons and then if the words come up, I give out prizes for them being suggested and identified.

“One suggestion was ‘nuggets’ and another ‘coffee’ so as those words came up, I thought a McDonalds delivery would be the ideal reward.

“I dropped off boxes of chicken nuggets and hot drinks and the reaction was wonderful.

“The children are working hard in what are very different circumstances, with most only seeing the rest of us on screens and it was lovely to see the smiles on their faces.”

Mark Kilmurray, headteacher at Armfield Academy, said: “I am incredibly proud of Joanne, who in the true spirit of Armfield Academy, since the very start of the first lockdown,has gone above and beyond to support our students in these challenging times.

“We all recognise the difficulties that the current lockdown rules are having for parents and our students.

“Joanne and all our staff are continually trying different and interesting ways of engaging our young people and this is one such example.

“Most importantly, this golden ‘nugget’ has been so widely well received by our students and their parents – long may it continue.”

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