FIVE thousand school items will be sent to a Southampton primary school after their Christmas wish list was answered.

School resource company Twinkl - who are based more than 200 miles away in Sheffield - answered a head teacher's plea for help after she said funding cuts mean she is unable to buy basic school supplies.

As reported Valentine Primary School's head teacher Liz Filer put out a wish list asking for parents to buy basic supplies.

When managers at Twinkl and their partner YPO saw the Daily Echo's story they picked up the phone to Ms Filer and asked her exactly what she needed.

Now a total of 5,030 items will be delivered on Thursday - with the entire list the school appealed for arriving in the following week.

Jonathan Seaton, founder and CEO of school resource company Twinkl, said: “Everything we do at Twinkl is to help those who teach and we deliver ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ year-round to support schools, teachers and our customers when they are at a particular time of need.

“We know that this is not a solution to the issues that Valentine Primary School faces regarding funding for supplies and we know that there are schools out there in a similar situation. But we hope that this will help the school during this difficult time. The most important thing is that educators and schools are empowered to speak out about any challenges they encounter in order to raise awareness and get support.”

YPO’s managing director Simon Hill said: “After reading about Valentine Primary School’s wish-list we were more than happy to work with Twinkl and provide the everyday essential products the school needs to deliver lessons. YPO was set up in the 1970s to help schools save money, and we’ll continue to work with our partners and the education sector to add value in every way we can.”

Liz Filer, Head teacher at Valentine Primary School, said: “I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Twinkl and YPO for their amazing generosity and support. We were blown away when we read the list of items that are being donated. Although this will not solve our funding crisis, it will make a real difference to the staff and children at Valentine Primary. Children will now have some lovely new resources which will put a smile on the faces of staff here. We are very grateful for this support.”

The full list of items provided by Twinkl and YPO is:

100 Glue sticks

24 Tubes of paint

60 Crayons

50 Oil pastels

64 Pairs of scissors

2 Dictionaries

76 Packs of post-it notes

10 Staple removers

20 Tubs of Play-Doh

1,000 Lolly sticks

144 Pencils

100 Rulers

165 Mirrors

100 Protractors

100 Erasers

100 Assorted colours whiteboard pens

100 Black whiteboard pens

25 Paint brushes

120 Felt-tip pens

200 Black handwriting pens

100 Pencil sharpeners

2 Thesauruses

160 Card collage materials

75 Glue spreaders

16 Rolls of Sellotape

4 Sellotape dispensers

5 DC adaptor plugs

50 Permanent markers

100 White chalks

100 Assorted colours chalks

288 Colouring pencils

48 Packs of Blu-tack

36 Pencil cases

9 Rolls of masking tape

1,000 Split pins

400 Sheets of Tracing paper

24 Pots of Glitter

50 Clarinet reeds

Second-hand instruments - 1 violin, 2 x guitars

Total: 5,030 items