Thinking of ways to spend windfall
May 19 2008 by Paul Loraine, The Journal
STAFF at a rural Northumberland school would be faced with a pleasant problem were they to win a cash prize in The Journal’s Tokens for Schools competition.
Deputy head at Seahouses Middle School, Annette Monnelly, said no firm spending plans exist as yet but there are a number of options being weighed up against each other.
The school has submitted an application for specialist status in music and ICT and any money won, she revealed, could go towards buying new equipment to strengthen these departments.
Meanwhile, a new minibus is also on their shopping list and the attraction of easier transport to sports fixtures and school trips may tip the scales in that direction. Mrs Monnelly said: “One of the things that we are thinking about is going into a possible leasing of a mini- bus. That would be for using on school trips and sports fixtures and things like that.
“Being where we are, the transport costs are huge. If we had a minibus, kids would be able to access a lot more of the area.
“Also, we are currently applying to be a specialist school for music and ICT.
“We should find out in September if our application has been successful and, if we were to get it, the money could go towards music and ICT equipment.” Mrs Monnelly said pupils, parents and staff had taken to the idea of the competition whereby schools collect tokens from the paper to compete for one of a series of cash prizes.
She said: “It’s very new for us at the moment. We are only a small school – we have just more than 130 pupils – but they are usually really good at taking part in things.
“We got involved through a grandmother of one of the kids and our local community is brilliant at supporting whatever we are trying to do.”
The promotion encourages families, friends and teachers to work together to collect as many tokens as possible to receive money from a cash pot of £15,000.
Schools can register in the competition up until May 22 and the first tokens will appear in the paper from Monday, June 2.
We are only a small school but they are usually really good at taking part in things.
