Teachers have praised Butterfield Bank for donating school bags and supplies to help more than 300 needy children.

Butterfield staff collected over $7,000 after hosting four denim days — the amount was matched by the bank.

Fourteen primary and five middle schools will benefit from the donation as part of the bank's 'Back to School Drive'.

Clearwater Middle School deputy principal Derek Tully said many children would have started the academic year without the basic supplies they needed.

Sometimes both parents were unemployed, he said, and could not afford even the basic educational tools for their children.

Yesterday Dr. Tully joined other teachers to thank Butterfield Bank for the donation.

"These are difficult economic times and we have children coming into our elementary schools, into our middle schools who are actually living in emergency housing.

"And anything we can do to aid them to get to classes, to get their lessons which would benefit their education, we really appreciate that.

"As my colleagues have said, I am very, very grateful for what the bank and its employees have done."

Pamela Richardson, a counsellor at Purvis and Heron Bay Primary schools said the donation was a "kind and magnificent" gesture.

"We are in really stiff economic times and the bags will be well served to the children who need them the most," she said.

According to the teachers, the backpacks full of stationery, notebooks, pencil cases, hand sanitiser, lunch bags and keyrings, are vital to the children's success.

Anthony Peets, a Prospect Primary School counsellor, said elementary school was the foundation for a child's academic future.

"When kids arrive with the tools that they need that is when they accomplish the goals that we expect. And at our school we expect all our children to be prepared."

Barbara Hollis, a counsellor at Northlands Primary, said many parents were excited and appreciative of the gesture.

"This is the second year in a row the [bank] has been helpful to my school, so on behalf of my parents, staff and students at Northlands we are grateful.

"I have told all of the parents who are on the receiving end of these bags and all of them are grateful."

To read more about Butterfield's 'Back to School Drive' see the Lifestyle section of the paper.