Teacher says success of prom dress scheme feels her with 'pride' but also 'sadness'

© Provided by Colchester Gazette Success - The Stanway School's prom dress exchange team Elaine Hiskey, Sarah Barker, Liz Burgess and Andrea Taylor (Image: The Stanway School)

A TEACHER has conflicting feelings over the success of her school’s prom dress exchange scheme, saying it feels her with both “a sense of pride” and “sadness”.

Stanway School, in Winstree Road, launched its Say Yes To A Prom Dress project back in 2018 starting out with just one glitzy gown.

The initiative is designed to give youngsters who cannot justify buying or hiring a new dress or suit the chance to still attend prom without the added cost.

Since the scheme started it has grown tremendously, and currently harbours about 300 second-hand dresses and suits, all of which can be hired by students.

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But Sarah Barker, assistant head of Year 9 who runs the kind-hearted project, says she has mixed feelings over the success of the project.

She said: “When I saw the reaction from that first dress, I thought we could be on to something.

“From there, the school kindly invested in a selection of dresses in different sizes and it just grew from there.

“We asked if anyone had dresses they would like to donate and they came in a lot quicker than we could have imagined.

“There is a sense of pride, but it is also tinged with sadness that it has become so big.

“Pride because we are catering for a need but sadness that the need exists in the first place.”

Last week the latest cohort of roughly 50 prom-attending pupils were given the chance to choose a flashy outfit for the hallmark end-of-year event over two nights.

Sarah added: “We ask for a small contribution for each dress used and all money raised goes back into the prom dresses for next year.

“There is a lot of work that goes on before, during and after the two evenings and I wouldn’t be able to do it without an invaluable team of volunteer staff members.

“It is the best feeling when you see students on prom night wearing one of your dresses.”

The success of the scheme has now led to Sarah appealing for any local businesses who may have suitable storage space for the dresses.

To contact Sarah email sarah.barker@stanway.school