In May, we launched our first-ever £1000 local school giveaway competition! We gave five local schools the chance to win £1000, with second and third-place schools winning £200 and £100 respectively.
Having supported our local community for over 30 years, we decided it was high time we turned our attention to our amazing local schools. Teaching, nurturing and inspiring our children is the biggest of responsibilities, but unfortunately, many schools have to bear this responsibility whilst being underfunded. So, what better way to spend £1300 than to help our wonderful local schools!
We asked each of our five schools what they would do with the money, and then we asked our Facebook audience to vote for the school they wanted to receive the money by liking that school’s post. Unbelievably, the posts received over 5800 likes between them in a matter of weeks! We were bowled over by the fantastic response from the schools, their parents and friends, and our Facebook community. What a supportive bunch you all are!
Before we reveal the winner, let’s have a look at each of the schools and what they wanted to use the money for.
Hawley Primary School
Hawley Primary School wanted to redevelop and modernise their Food Technology area. The school itself is a beautiful Victorian School, but their current children’s kitchen area is looking tired and overworked. Groups of children use the area every day to make all sorts of delights such as cakes, pizzas, fruit salads and even Tudor pies during their Tudor studies! Their children with special needs find cooking a relaxing activity if the day becomes overwhelming and their busy ‘Breakfast & After School Club’ use the area twice a day to prepare food for the children. They had plans to install new kitchen units and sinks and they wanted to use the £1000 prize to purchase new equipment and utensils for the kitchen to make the area as up-to-date and appealing as possible, with the hope of inspiring a few future Star Chefs in the process!
The Grove Academy
The Grove Academy have an area of their playground called The Friendship Garden. It’s a quiet area where children with ASD needs or children who struggle with the hustle and bustle of the playground can go for a quieter play. The fencing around the area is broken and falling down, so they wanted to use the money to replace the fence and make The Friendship Garden a more welcoming place for their vulnerable children.
Frogmore Junior School
Frogmore Junior School planned to use the money to re-mark the playground, which is in dire need of a revamp. They also wanted to paint a tennis or netball court as well. They recently had their Trim Trail redone and were keen to refresh the playground as well to encourage the children to enjoy more time outside exercising.
The staff at Cordwalles Junior School believe that enabling children to experience the joy of performing arts will develop their self-esteem, confidence and resilience. Therefore, one of their primary aims is for all children to have the chance to perform on stage every year, whether it be in a drama performance, class assembly, choir or through dance. They have a huge hall with a fixed stage which is used regularly throughout the year but it currently has just one microphone. They wanted to use the money to buy drop-down mics so the children’s speaking and singing voices could be heard clearly. The school put on a Beauty and the Beast performance at Christmas, which was a huge success, and they are currently auditioning for a Summer performance of The Lion King. Being able to purchase drop-down microphones would enable all performers to be heard and would support their growing performing arts curriculum.
South Camberley Primary & Nursery School
South Camberley Primary & Nursery School wanted to use the money to fund a number of trips and visits throughout the summer. Given the economic climate, some of their parents have found it difficult to fund these trips, and there have even been occasions when trips have had to be cancelled because the school was struggling to cover the costs from their already stretched budget. They were hoping to use the £1000 to support the cost of these trips so their pupils could enjoy and benefit from the stimulating and inspiring experiences the school has planned.
The Winners!
As you can see, all the schools had extremely valid reasons for receiving the £1000, and we would have loved to give them all £1000! We did decide to give £200 and £100 to two runners-up to help towards their projects.
So, onto the winners! After a month of voting, we were thrilled to announce Hawley Primary School as the winner with an astonishing 2300 likes on their Facebook post! The Grove Academy came in as a close second, with an equally impressive 2100 likes, and Frogmore Junior School came in third with 731 likes.
We went and visited all three winning schools to present them with their cheque and all the staff and children were incredibly warm and welcoming to us. We had a lovely day and we even got to be a part of a school assembly!
We want to say a huge thank you again to all the schools who took part and everyone who voted. We love running competitions that benefit our customers and the local community, and this was certainly one of the best! In fact, we may well run a similar competition again soon to help more of our wonderful local schools, so keep an eye out for the next opportunity to vote!
