A head teacher has been dubbed a “superhero” by parents after taking on everything from building projects to catering to keep her cash-strapped school afloat.
Emily Proffitt not only teaches in the classroom, but also acts as gardener, builder, premises manager and menu planner.
Her 93-pupil school been hit by £81,000 of cuts since 2015 – squeezing budgets for teachers and other workers.
But after doing up the staff room with her dad in 2016, Emily, 37, has turned her hand to countless tasks to plug the funding gap.
She has helped build a cloakroom and fixed a leaking pond.
And she now plans and sources school meals, arranging deals with local suppliers, saving £9,000 a year.
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Emily said: “Over the last three years we had to make some drastic changes to staff, we’ve lost TAs, we’ve reduced hours of staff. When I started, we’d have money in surplus – the current picture is we don’t have any surplus at all.”
It all started when Emily and her dad revamped the staff room at Tittensor C of E First School, near Trentham, Stoke.
She said: “It was very dilapidated. The tiles and kitchen equipment predated the 1970s and the taps were leaking.
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“I sourced kitchen units and tiles as cheap as possible and spent two weeks of my holiday renovating.”
Emily saves £2,000 a year by doing the gardening with help from volunteer parents. And pupils are reaping the benefits, growing fruit, and veg for use in their meals.
She also helped build a log cabin and fix the pond.
Emily said: “It was dangerous for the children. Now they do pond dipping.”
She says she couldn’t do it without her dad, her mum who helps with admin, and help from the local community.
“We rely heavily on volunteers. We’re lucky to have their support.”
But mum-of-three Laura Adams, insisted: “She’s our superhero – very inspirational to us all and the children love her.”
