Refugees’ summer school fundsbid

Stirling School of English has launched a fundraiser to support Syrian refugees in Forth Valley attending its summer school.

The school is looking to raise money to subsidise the travel of costs of refugees in the area to the school.

So far, £1488 has been raised through a fundraiser on the website Crowdfunder - 26 per cent of the target goal.

A total of 15 applications have been received by the school for the Summer School programme from Syrians living in the Clackmannanshire area.

As well as that, there will be eight children to be looked after at a creche during the classes.

An adult return bus ticket from Alloa to Stirling costs £4, with travel per person costing £20 a week - a total cost of £300 per week for 15 adults.

The additional cost of children’s tickets means that cost will rise to £72 per week for eight children.

Therefore, the total travel costs for four weeks of the summer school would be £1488.

In order for the refugees to get their bus ticket refunded by the school, they will need to present the ticket the next day.

Classes at the summer school will start on July 1 and will run until July 12, with further classes commencing on July 22 and running until August 2.

They will take place Monday to Friday during these periods, running from 10am to 4pm.

On Wednesdays, the school will also provide a full-day excursion.

A spokesperson for Stirling School of English said: “It has been acknowledged by government that the Scottish economy requires foreign workers to flourish. This is evident in Stirling, where the Stirling School of English has had students of 33 different nationalities this academic year alone.

“The vast majority of our students have work in the area, but some, most notably the Syrian refugees, do not.

“We address this point specifically in our Summer School Programme with a series of workshops on job applications and job interviewing techniques.”

If you would like to donate to the fundraiser, you can do so at https://www. crowdfunder.co.uk/bustickets-for-syrian-refugeesfor-summer-school