It’s September and as a new school year has just started it felt like a good time to remind you all that I have partnered with Oakgrove Secondary School to offer ALL students free period packs all year round.
When Oakgrove approached me in early 2022 they had heard about my free period packs in the shop and they wanted me to work with them to bridge the gap so that students could access free period products outside of term time. During the school day there are various locations they can collect free period products including office D10, student services and main reception.
We have just completed our full school year of offering all students The ShrimPy Card and I am looking forward to catching up with Mrs Taylor so we can plan our 2023 assemblies including an introduction to the card for the new year 7’s.
The ShrimPy Card is fun and colourful and is the same shape and size as a debit card. It was actually Oakgrove who decided on the name. They wanted to put the emphasis on the P - for period of course! Although we would love to have completely eradicated the stigma surrounding periods, this is a slow process and we know that having a play on words will make the students more comfortable than just calling it a ‘free period pack card’. Students have been given permission to wear a ShrimPy badge on their blazers to promote healthy conversations about periods by staff and students. I visited the school a couple of months ago and it was so great to see students still wearing their badges.
All students are given a ShrimPy Card & badge and last years year 7’s were also given a starter pack which included a reusable pouch, various pads, hand sanitiser and wipes. This was funded by Oakgrove and Milton Keynes Council and has been confirmed that it will go ahead again for this year with Oakgrove fully funding it. Students are given a brown paper bag with their products in and we actively encourage them to bring their reusable pouches instead so that we can cut down on unnecessary waste.
We managed to get major retailers on board so as well as showing their card at Shrimp & Doodle, students can also show their card at Waitrose @ Oakgrove, Tesco @ Kingston and Boots @ Kingston.
In June this year Oakgrove met with the Department For Education to discuss our scheme and how we aim to achieve period equality for all students. Currently Oakgrove are the only school in the country that have set up a scheme to offer period products all year round. I hope that more secondary schools work to bridge that gap.