A Shrewsbury-based garage has teamed up with its neighbouring schools to work together on an innovative new education programme.

Church Road Garage of Baschurch has sponsored the newly created TEFORS education programme for pupils at three Shropshire schools - Baschurch Primary, West Lullingfields Primary and Myddle Church of England Primary Schools.

The TEFORS (Tyre Education for Schools) scheme is aimed at educating primary school pupils by using tyres as a product which teaches youngsters the importance of tyre production, tyre safety and the benefits of tyre recycling.

The TEFORS package enables companies to forge stronger community links with schools by sponsoring the programmem which is then supplied to the sponsor’s local school.

Bill Smith, owner of Church Road Garage, said, “We were thrilled to be invited to take up the opportunity of sponsoring the TEFORS scheme with three local schools. This is a terrific scheme. 

“TEFORS will bring to life subjects such as science, safety and environmental issues in the classroom and will allow us to play a much closer role within the community where our retail outlet sits. We look forward to forging links with the pupils and teachers of the three sponsored schools.”

Baschurch Primary head teacher, Andrew Everett, added, “We are hugely thankful to Church Road Garage for undertaking the sponsorship. It’s great to have a successful retail operation on our doorstep who wants to forge closer links with us.

“As a school dedicated to applying real-life issues to the core curriculum, we know the pupils will receive lots back from the TEFORS scheme.”

The TEFORS programme was created by tyre recycling expert David Bavaird, MD of North East based Scrap Tyre Exchange. Mr Bavaird said,“I’m passionate about the TEFORS programme, which will ignite further understanding, awareness and interest with tomorrow’s drivers today. The scheme offers the perfect vehicle for relevant organisations to create stronger links within the community and give a little bit back.”

The scheme was launched at the end of 2009 and has already won the backing of scores of schools and businesses across the country. It has also been endorsed by the Tyre Industry Federation.

TEFORS is targeted at 10 and 11 year olds and aims to make them more aware of science, safety and recycling issues relating to tyres through pre-prepared teaching materials and lesson plans that teach subjects covered by the national curriculum including English, Maths, science and citizenship.

Any businesses or schools interested in getting involved in TEFORS should register their interest at www.tefors.co.uk.