Phoenix Group, the UK's largest long-term savings and retirement business, is pleased to announce it is entering into a partnership with Ferryhill Primary School in Edinburgh which will support pupils' literacy and financial skills, alongside giving them the opportunity to gain insight into the world of work, consider their career options and develop their skills.

Through its community engagement programme Phoenix seeks to forge formal partnerships with schools based in the communities in which its offices are based. Phoenix has an operational headquarters in the centre of Edinburgh which is where many of those supporting the customers of its Standard Life brand are based.

Phoenix's support over the next few years will include monetary assistance, donation of colleagues' time and skills through volunteering, particularly in literacy and financial skills support. Phoenix will also donate surplus Company IT equipment and furniture, supporting the circular economy of waste in Edinburgh.

Phoenix signed the Vision for Business Literacy Pledge at the start of 2021, and through this aims to improve literacy levels in its local communities. One of the first activities planned on the partnership agenda will be the introduction of face-to-face or virtual reading buddy volunteering, which is a concept Phoenix conducts at other schools around the UK, inspiring the love of reading and supporting pupils from a young age with learning phonics.

Ferryhill Primary is based in the heart of Edinburgh's Drylaw and Telford communities, with over 300 primary-aged pupils registered onsite. For 20% of pupils at the school, English is not their first language. More than 20 different languages are spoken, alongside French and Spanish which are studied by pupils in the classroom. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation is a relative measure of deprivation across 6,976 small areas (called data zones). The index looks at the extent to which an area is deprived across seven domains: income, employment, education, health, access to services, crime and housing. Ferryhill's demographic is spread across SIMD deciles 1-4 with one third of the children in SIMD deciles 1 and 2.

The pupils are not strangers to Phoenix as pre-pandemic in January 2020, a group visited Standard Life House, on Lothian Road, to explore the office and learn about potential career opportunities. This partnership will be launched with the aim of inspiring pupils throughout their school career and beyond.

Andy Moss, Phoenix Life CEO and Group Director, Heritage at Phoenix Group said: "We are delighted to welcome Ferryhill Primary to our formal partnership programme, and I personally look forward to meeting the pupils and teaching staff in the coming year. Phoenix Group's purpose is to help people secure a life of possibilities and this extends to our local communities, as well as our colleagues and customers. We'll be looking to see how Phoenix as a business, along with all our Edinburgh-based colleagues, can offer their time and support to help the pupils excel at school. We really can't wait to get started and make a lasting difference."

Phoenix will also look to support the school's existing outdoor learning activity by creating further learning experiences. The school already has a well-established outdoor learning and bio-diversity focus for pupils, and Phoenix will explore additional activities to support such as the creation of home-grown produce onsite, alongside fauna and flora onsite to support wildlife and habitats.

Mr Stewart Crabb, Head at Ferryhill Primary said: "Children, staff and parents are thrilled to be taking this next step in our partnership with Phoenix Group. We have appreciated the support of the group over the past 18 months and groups of children learned a great deal from their educational visits to Standard Life House. This partnership offers a great opportunity for children to access the skills, knowledge, experience and support of Phoenix Group and its workforce. We plan to take opportunities to enhance learning and teaching by bringing real-life contexts into the classroom, contributing to learning of STEM subjects, language skills and sustainability."

Ferryhill Primary School in Edinburgh is the latest partnership, joining Ark Kings Academy based in Kings Norton, Birmingham, which has been linked to Phoenix since 2017.

As part of Phoenix's sustainability plans in 2022, and beyond, Phoenix will be announcing further formal school partnerships to support the communities in which it is based.

-Ends-

Notes to Editors

Enquiries

Sarah Muir
Lansons
sarahm@lansons.com

Oshin Sharma
Lansons
oshins@lansons.com

Rachel Esland
Phoenix Group
rachel_esland@standardlife.com

About Phoenix Group

Phoenix is the UK's largest long-term savings and retirement business, with £300 billion of assets under administration and c.13 million customers.

We are a growing and sustainable business with a clear purpose - helping people secure a life of possibilities. This means taking responsible and sustainable investment decisions, and using our presence and voice to advocate on behalf of the UK's savers. We understand that our scale and expertise means that we have an important role to play for our customers, colleagues and our communities.

As life expectancy continues to increase and the pension landscape continues to shift, we will continue to be a safe and dependable ally in the journey to and through retirement for millions of customers, by providing the right guidance and products, at the right time, to support the right choices. We offer a broad range of products for people across all stages of the savings life cycle.

Our strategy focuses on delivering long term, sustainable value and, to fulfil our purpose, focuses on five key areas to ensure we respond to changing customer needs, manage our capital position well, create value, inspire our people, and put sustainability at the heart of our business.

Phoenix is a FTSE 100 company and we feature in the FTSE100 ESG Select Index. We are playing an active role in helping to build back better and greener as we invest for the future. In 2020 we committed to our operations being net zero carbon by 2025 and our investment portfolios by 2050. In 2021 we set an interim target of a 50% reduction in the carbon emission intensity of c £250bn of investments by 2030.

We are a Living Wage Employer and recognised as a Carer Positive Exemplary Employer for offering the best support to colleagues who are carers.

LinkedIn: PhoenixGroup-UK

Twitter: @PhoenixGroupUK

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Phoenix Group Holdings plc published this content on 16 December 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 16 December 2021 09:08:02 UTC.