Isle of Wight Council is working with Ryde Arena’s owners Planet Ice to offer an incentive for any students who gain a 100% attendance record during the forthcoming school year.

Those who complete a full term without missing school will be given free family ice skating tickets and certificates. In total, over 500 students could recieve free family tickets.

Support for the project is also provided by the Island’s professional ice hockey team, the Wightlink Raiders, whose Coach and members of the team will go into schools to present certificates and skating passes to students.

The scheme officially begins from the first day of the new term, which starts on Wednesday 3rd September.

Isle of Wight Council’s Cabinet member for Children and Young People Cllr Alan Wells said

“Ice skating is a very popular activity with young people, and students knowing they can access free skating is a great incentive. This is all about rewarding those who make the effort in the classroom every day of term.

Planet Ice are very keen to work with the council with this initiative and are not receiving any financial support, so both the company and the council should be congratulated for such a great scheme.”

General Manager at Planet Ice Ryde Arena, Lorna Cotton said

“Many of our customers are people of a school age and we know how popular ice skating is. Often, students who do well in school are not rewarded enough. We wanted to give them something and approached the council who were only too willing to support us with the free skating idea as a reward for 100% attendance.

It also gives them an incentive to impress their parents as family tickets are on offer. This is a great incentive and should it prove successful this year, we may look to extend it to other schools outside the Ryde area.”

The scheme is open to middle schools in Ryde as well as Ryde High School and is being coordinated through the council’s Education Welfare Service and Planet Ice.