Falkirk Cineworld come to the rescue of Beancross Primary pupils

Youngsters and staff from Beancross Primary were due to attend the opening night of the Falkirk Town Hall panto, Sleeping Beauty, on Friday, December 9. However, two days before the long-planned outing, the school staff were given the devastating news that due to issues with the town hall heating system the performance was cancelled.

Jennifer Lesko, Beancross acting principal teacher, said: “This call was made at 2.30pm on Wednesday, December 7 when we were in the middle of our P1 and ELCC nativity, leaving not a lot of time to get something organised for around 500 pupils from our entire school and ELCC to attend. The senior leadership team spent the night on Wednesday and Thursday morning trying to find something festive for our pupils to take part in. We also wanted to use the seven 70-seater coaches from E&M Horsburgh which were booked for this trip.”

However, the staff at Cineworld in Falkirk’s Central Retail Park came to the rescue and the pupils and staff were able to enjoy their festive treat.

Jennifer added: “Cineworld Falkirk came to our rescue, opening especially for us on Friday morning with one of the managers actually giving up her annual leave to accommodate us. They provided two cinema screens, screening Matilda the Musical and also provided a festive quiz with prizes to keep the children occupied, while we waited on the buses to arrive to bring us back to school.”

She added that they also opened the Starbucks cafe to ensure that the school staff had refreshments.

“We want to say a massive thank you to the staff of Cineworld Falkirk for the kindness, generosity and festive spirit. We are very grateful and the kids thoroughly enjoyed their day. We will definitely be back again,” she said.

The failure of the heating system and the temporary heaters brought in to heat the town hall has caused issues for several groups hoping to attend the pantomime. Falkirk Council’s leisure and culture service has apologised to the many group bookings who they have been unable to accommodate on other dates.

The town hall is due to close in early February and will then be demolished.