IF YOU look up the word ‘generous’ in one of the 300 brand new dictionaries at Saddleworth School, it might as well just say ‘Cory Hopwood’…
For the generous dad has bought and donated the collection to the school after seeing a plea for help by English teacher Nik Jackson on Facebook.
Cory, who lives in Uppermill with his family, explained: “I was sat in a hotel on holiday when I saw the message on Facebook from Nik asking for dictionaries for the school.
“It just really struck me that a school had basically been reduced to asking for handouts. I wasn’t sure at first if it was a joke!
“I replied to Nik asking if there was no funding for something like that. I wanted to help so I asked around my contacts and found one who could get me 300 dictionaries.”
Cory’s godchildren are pupils at Saddleworth School and he has taken two apprentices from the school into his business, Hopwood Gear Ltd in Royton.
He added: “We all want the best education for our children. If I can give a few quid and help then that is great. Hopefully it’s something the children can benefit from for years.
“I remember when I was at school and we used mini Collins dictionaries which were supplied for free.”
The dictionaries will be used by all pupils as a classroom resource in the English department, much to the delight of teacher Nik, who only joined the school last September.
He said: “We are overwhelmed by Cory’s generosity. It was completely out of the blue and a wonderful surprise.
“I was only looking for five or ten dictionaries so to get 300 is fantastic. It’s the perfect number to split between the classes in our year groups so all our 1350 pupils can benefit.
“People might think we’re an affluent school in an affluent area but all the time we’re getting less funding and it’s things like this that suffer.”
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