Phoenix Energy recently hosted a workplace visit for pupils from St Patrick’s Primary School in Holywood as part of the company’s involvement with Business in the Community’s ‘Time to Read’ initiative.
The pupils from primary 4 and primary 5 were taken on a whistle-stop tour of Phoenix’s headquarters and given a unique insight into its operations.
Throughout the current school year, the children have received one-to-one mentoring sessions every week at St Patrick’s from a group of Phoenix Energy staff volunteers who have read books with them to help improve their literacy levels and social development.
Tiarnan Boyle, a business analyst and member of the company’s Time to Read team, reflected, “Our participation in the Time to Read programme has not only helped the children involved to improve their standard of reading, but, as a company actively engaged in corporate social responsibility initiatives within the communities we serve, it continues to be a great way for us to give something back to the local community.
“We invited the children to our offices to give them a real insight into the work that we do in our day jobs. They were very excited and enthusiastic on the tour and took away a lot of learning from their visit. Having established a strong relationship with the school over the years, we feel this is a very worthwhile initiative to be part of and I am delighted to help play a role in assisting pupil’s development at this stage of their learning journey”.
‘Time to Read’ is an award-winning initiative established by Business In The Community in 1999 and is available to any interested primary schools and businesses throughout Northern Ireland. More information can be found at www.bitcni.org.uk.
For more information on Phoenix Energy, visit www.phoenixnaturalgas.com.
