Unable to hold fundraising events and activities over the past year, the school is using the donation from Mactaggart & Mickel’s Building Communities Fund to replenish their bank of school uniforms and educational equipment accessible to all who need it, as well as to help fund student-run STEM and Eco Community projects. 

The helping hand is just one of many that Mactaggart & Mickel has extended on both sides of the Scottish-English border helping a wide variety of organisations navigate their way through the impact of the pandemic including Aimsfield Preservation Trust in Haddington and Paisley based Finding your Feet, founded by quadruple amputee Cor Hutton.

Joanne Casey, director at Mactaggart & Mickel, said: “We have a proud history of supporting people in the communities where we have built new homes, which reflects Mactaggart & Mickel’s family ethos.

“We have always cared deeply about the people in the communities where we want to make a positive difference, especially where people have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are committed to helping organisations and projects that benefit people’s lives through our Building Communities Fund and we know their hard work is more valuable than ever due to the pandemic.”

Stuart Maxwell, headteacher of Eastwood High School, said: “The donation made by Mactaggart & Mickel will make a real difference to many of our pupils and will enable us to purchase additional specialist equipment to support our STEM education.

“As a school we have been keen to promote engineering and in 2014 won the UK Lego Elite Engineering Challenge. The equipment won then is now rather dated and this kind and generous donation from Mactaggart and Mickel will allow us to update and replenish it, and it will make a positive difference to many young lives.”

Launched in 2016, the Building Communities Fund has benefited charities and groups including:

• Aberlour Childcare Trust
• Ayrshire Orienteering Club
• Haddington & District Community Council’s Resilience Team
• Easthouses Football Club
• Scottish Association for Mental Health
• Cathcart Youth Ministry Partnership
• Edinburgh City Mission
• St Nicholas CE Primary School, East Challow, Oxfordshire
• Oxfordshire Mind
• Fintan Football Club, Cheltenham.