Voucher gets students a free meal at Banana Tree
Students need to bring a voucher which can be downloaded from the Banana Tree website and purchase a soft drink to claim their celebratory dish.
And for families enjoying the school holidays, Banana Tree's Kids Eat Free offer is back, available Sunday to Thursday until the end of August.
Tom Patrick, Marketing Director at Banana Tree, said: 'We know how much effort goes into exam season, and we want to give students something to look forward to, on us. With free meals on results day and the launch of our Big Summer Flavour Club, this is our way of making bold, exciting food more accessible and rewarding than ever.'
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North Wales Live
7 days ago
- North Wales Live
Voucher gets students a free meal at Banana Tree
Restaurant Banana Tree is offering students a free meal on A Level and GCSE results days. On August 14, A Level students can order a free Pad Thai, and on August 21, GCSE students will get free Katsu Curry. Students need to bring a voucher which can be downloaded from the Banana Tree website and purchase a soft drink to claim their celebratory dish. And for families enjoying the school holidays, Banana Tree's Kids Eat Free offer is back, available Sunday to Thursday until the end of August. Tom Patrick, Marketing Director at Banana Tree, said: 'We know how much effort goes into exam season, and we want to give students something to look forward to, on us. With free meals on results day and the launch of our Big Summer Flavour Club, this is our way of making bold, exciting food more accessible and rewarding than ever.'
Scotsman
03-07-2025
- Scotsman
Tesco announces extra support for children and families facing hunger over the school holidays this summer
With the school holidays now underway, Tesco is providing extra help to support children and their families this summer, as part of its Stronger Starts programme. The initiatives are in response to the crucial need to support children who would normally receive free school meals during term time and are therefore at risk of missing meals during the holiday period. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Last summer, nearly a third (32%) of families with children reported sometimes or often being unable to afford balanced meals in the previous month, according to research from Trussell and today, one in four children under the age of five are at risk of needing to use a food bank. Additional research from Tesco highlights the challenges faced in the school holidays. Last summer, one in 12 respondents said that in the past their children have had to miss meals due to financial constraints – a problem alleviated during term time by access to free school meals. Pre-filled donation bags Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad For families shopping in store, the supermarket will also be running its Kids Eat Free scheme in its 317 cafés across the UK over the school summer holidays. This summer, Tesco will sell its pre-packed food donation bags in all large stores. The bags, which typically cost between £2 and £3, are pre-filled with healthy and nutritious long-life items and can be picked up in store and paid for at the checkout. The donated food goes directly to FareShare and Trussell, who will distribute it to charities and food banks to help families who need it most across the UK. Last summer, Trussell food banks supported 391,000 people with emergency food – 143,000 of whom were children, and the charity expects to see continued high levels of need this summer. Grants for schools providing food and activities Schools are running holiday breakfast and lunch clubs to tackle the lack of free school meals and keep pupils fed and active. Tesco is supporting them by giving £200 gift cards to all 400 schools that are part of its term-time Fruit and Veg for Schools programme. Donation bags will be available in Scottish stores from 30th June to 10th August. Tesco Fruit & Veg for Schools supports pupils in schools where there is a higher-than-average free school meal ratio, and in total aims to provide around 16 million pieces of fruit and vegetables. Over a school year, that's the equivalent of 110 portions per child on average. Round up at the till Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad From 25th – 31st August, customers will have the chance to round up their bill at the checkout to the nearest pound with the funds being split between FareShare and Trussell to support their work over the summer. Customers shopping online will also be able to make a monetary donation as they check out. Last year, generous Tesco shoppers donated just over £500,000. Kids Eat Free in cafes For families shopping in store, the supermarket will also be running its Kids Eat Free scheme in its 317 cafés across the UK over the school summer holidays. The supermarket's cafés will be offering one free Kids Hot Meal Deal, Kids Breakfast or Kids Pick 'n' Mix deal with each item bought by an adult from as little as 60p, when showing their Tesco Clubcard or Clubcard App at the till. One of the groups who has benefitted from the Holiday Helps campaign is Peeblesshire Foodbank, who provide food to people who need that extra support. Fiona Dalgleish, manager at Peeblesshire Foodbank, said: 'Tesco donation bags make things so much easier for both people making donations and for us too! We can tell Tesco what we need, they make up packs of varying sizes and Tesco customers can simply pick them up, pay for them and pop them into the collection basket. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It's so easy - the customers know that they're giving us exactly what we need and the gaps on our shelves fill found donations really increase during the initiative, it really works for us. Thank you Tesco for a great scheme, it makes the world of difference for the people who use our food bank.' Claire De Silva, Head of Communities at Tesco, said:'Too often, families with too little support during the holidays worry about their children's physical and mental health, particularly if they're not getting the good food every child deserves. 'If we all pull together over the summer, whether that's popping a few tins into a food collection point, picking up a food donation bag in our stores or rounding up our grocery bill, we can make a difference to the lives of thousands of children, who, without support, could have a tough summer holiday.' Emma Revie, CEO at Trussell said: 'We are extremely grateful to our partner Tesco and excited for this year's in-store summer activities, making it easier for people to support their local food bank throughout the holidays. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It's not right that so many families with children can't afford to eat balanced meals. Our community of food banks distributed more than 1 million parcels for children last year, illustrating the unacceptable levels of hardship so many families are currently facing. No-one should need to turn to a charity for something as essential as food, and as we work towards achieving the long-term change needed, Tesco's support this summer will make a real difference to families across the UK.' Kris Gibbon-Walsh, CEO at FareShare said: 'During the school holidays, families across the UK will be facing financial pressures as they juggle the cost of childcare and food and turning to their local community and charities for support. 'The food that we provide doesn't just feed people, it provides a gateway to other services and activities that will help countless children to play, have fun and make friends this summer. 'That's why the donation bags in Tesco stores are vital. Any Tesco shoppers that can donate an item or two to FareShare will be making a big difference to children and families this summer.'
The Guardian
07-05-2025
- The Guardian
I won't be taking exam leave to support my teens – just hovering, worrying and driving them mad
W hen I was doing GCSEs and my sister was doing A-levels, we were on our way to school for my physics and her maths exams when we had a huge fight at the bus stop. I can't remember what it was about, but she definitely started it. I took a different route and was 20 minutes late for my exam while she took the original bus and spent the first quarter of her paper getting asked by teachers if she knew where I was. The beauty of this story is that I got an A and she got a B, but the relevant bit is that our mum didn't know any of this – didn't know we'd fought, didn't know I'd been late, didn't know my sister had got distracted, didn't know why I was laughing so hard on the third Thursday of August. Parents are now asking for 'exam leave' from work to get through their children's GCSEs and A-levels. The sheer emotional investment – never mind the time, energy and organisation involved these days – is extraordinary. So I have to note from the outset that this is a choice: there was a time in living memory when parents just left kids to it, and we all survived. Nonetheless, it doesn't feel like a choice. They say a family is only as happy as its least happy member, and if you just break down 'happiness' into some of its components – leisure time, mental peace, self-esteem – you'll have an idea why nobody in a GCSE household can relax until 19 June. First, these public exams seem more consequential, and the standards higher than ever: there are universities that won't even look at you unless you have straight 9s. There are jobs, PhD courses and scholarships choosing between two candidates on minute differences in their GCSE results. Or that's the rumour, anyway – there's no way to actually bottom it out, no central database of 'this is how seriously we take GCSEs', and everyone has an anecdote. Among state-school kids, there is a widespread, possibly universal perception that private schools are gaming the system. This was laid bare during Covid, when analysis repeatedly showed private-school pupils enjoying what was euphemistically described as the 'largest boosts in their fortunes' from teacher-assessed grades. Even after that scandal, which you'd think would have shamed them a little, there remain some pretty rum coincidences: how is it that 42% of private-school pupils get extra time in exams compared with 26.5% of state-school students? Does being rich make you more likely to be dyslexic? Exam stress: how to help children cope with GCSEs and A-levels The upshot is that even though grades 7 to 9 all count as an A in old money, many perfectionist students think of 7s and 8s as a runners-up prize. The problem is, 9s are actually incredibly hard, so the amount of work you have to put in is insane. My niece did 700 hours of revision; my daughter has done more work this year than the rest of the family combined (and I have a job!); a friend's daughter drinks ginger shots because she doesn't have time to drink a whole glass of water. Phase Space is a VR startup that's developed a course for exam stress – there are five seven-minute modules built by medical students at St George's hospital trust. I managed to borrow one for all the kids to use (the older two are in year 12 and have mocks), but I'm the only person who's had time to try it (it's great – if you think I don't sound relaxed, you should have heard me before). I'm not taking exam leave, but I am, no question, always home unless the kids are with their dad; I hover, make unhelpful suggestions, offer unwelcome consolation and muffins. I can scrape together some opinions on Animal Farm and how to say 'since' in French, but beyond that I have no practical use except to dispense glucose tablets and hay fever medicine. Truthfully, I'd have it this way over the other way, where parents could glide past exam season, pausing only to notice that it was hot for the time of year. There's still a huge amount going on with teens that they won't tell you, so if the price for being let in is that I have to engage in conversations that make my brain hurt (about calculating the area of the wedge between two circles), then that makes it worth it. Nevertheless, roll on the long summer. Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist
