Compere Tom Price

THE parents at a Finsbury Park Primary school raised £2,000 after they put on their first stand-up comedy night since Covid-19.

Organised against a backdrop of teacher strikes and increasing numbers of teachers leaving the profession nationally, Ambler Primary School’s Friends of Ambler group was raising money to put toward staff wellbeing.

Athena Kugblenu

Compere for “Live At Ambler” was Tom Price, a parent at the Blackstock Road school, who read out a range of ideas that could help, suggesting a staff trip to Abba Voyage or, perhaps, colonic irrigation.

Nicky Dawkins, chair of the PTA, said: “The purpose of the night was to show all the amazing teachers at Ambler that we appreciate them even if the government doesn’t.”

Rosie Holt gets everybody guffawing

Among the stand-ups who performed on the night, Rosie Holt “played her role as an ever-smiling always-patronising Tory MP to perfection,” said parent Nadine Mellor, before adding, “she was pushing at an open door with an audience full of north London Guardian readers.”

Other acts included Jimmy McGhie and stand-up Athena Kugblenu.