Primary School Teacher Zane Powles was named Primary School Teacher of the Year in 2019.
But some might argue that he should win this year too.
That’s because Powles has proven, yet again, that he will go above and beyond for his students.
Even during extremely difficult times.
Powles is the assistant headteacher at Western Primary School in Grimsby.
All of his students are stuck at home since they are all in quarantine due to the coronavirus.
That means that many of his vulnerable students are at risk of not eating since they usually eat at school.
But Powles wasn’t about to let these students go hungry.
So he now walks fives miles a day to hand deliver lunches to his students at their homes.
Powles, who served in the army as a part of the Grenadier Guards, hands out lunches from massive rucsacks he carries that are filled with enough bagged lunches for at least 78 students a day.
The baggage weighs about 40 pounds.
“We do care about every single child in our school,” Powles told Daily Mail.
“We do our very best, this is just the sort of things we do in our school.”
He delivers half of the meals with his car and the other on foot, dropping them in front of the students’ house to ensure that he is in line with social distancing guidelines.
Powles says he also does this so he can check on the welfare of the students he is visiting.
“I’ll wait for them to come to the door and sometimes have a quick peek inside just to make sure everything is in order and the children are okay,” said Powles.
The parents and students are both grateful and wait for Powles to arrive at their window.
“The parents and children come to the window or the door to wave and say hello, some of the parents want to have a little chat – I think I’m the only adult contact they get to talk to some days,” Powles told Independent.
Powles said it’s just a part of his pledge to “keep giving everything” to his students and to “never fail” these children.
Headteacher Kim Leach and another teacher have also taken this pledge.
They take turns bringing an additional 25 lunches by car to families who live farther out on a 15-mile round trip.
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“It’s a big team effort for sure. I look like I’m doing the donkey work. But it really isn’t just me,” Powles explain.
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“The other teachers also drive to deliver meals to children who live further away. We call the families up every week to make sure they’re doing okay. We prepare and pack the lunches together every single day,” Powles said.
About 41 percent of the students at Western Primary School are entitled to free school meals.
And about 34 percent of children in Grimbsy live in poverty.
“Quite a lot of the families are struggling – they don’t want to drag their kids out to the shop, some of them are scared to leave their house,” Powles explained. “So, I’m 100 percent happy to help and be there for them.”
His school’s tagline is “The School That Cares,” so it was only natural for their teachers to follow through on that promise.
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