Fleetwood school beats rivals to cash for playground

A Fleetwood primary school is planning a revamp of its playground after winning a North West contest.

Chaucer Primary School entered the Rock FM Cash for Kids fundraising competition, hoping to win the £3,000 prize to make playtime extra special.

And the school triumphed in the North West final after raising the most funds - an impressive tally of £2,831.

It means the school now has a grand total of £5,831 to spend on the playground, including exciting playground equipment.

Catherine Lea, Chaucer's Special Educational Needs (SEN) coordinator, organised the funding bid and said the scheme benefited schools in deprived areas.

She said: "I spotted something about the competition on Facebook and thought it might be a good way of raising funds for the school.

"We have an old Victorian building and our site is limited for space, with a fairly small playground, so we could do with a way to make more of it.

"After six weeks of fundraising as a school community we found out that we won.

"We are so proud of our children and families for the amazing effort everyone put in."

The school thought up some fun ways to raise funds.

Older pupils worked with parents to stage an after-hours movie night at the school, with pizza and popcorn, which raised £450.

Early years youngsters took part in a sponsored 'scoot' on scooters and bicycles, which raised an impressive £600.

There were also book sales, cake sales, a grand raffle and many other fundraisers over the six week period.

Now the Chaucer Road school is drawing up plans on how to revamp the playground and is looking at child-safe climbing walls, balancing beams and climbing frames.

Once the plans are finalised, work will get under way next year.