Pupils’ council has eyes on cash prize

Jun 26 2008 by Alex Carlisle, The Journal

PUPILS of a school in South Tyneside will decide for themselves where the prize money goes if they win their share of £15,000 in The Journal’s Tokens for Schools competition.

Steve Price, head of Bede Burn Primary School, Jarrow, said: “Some of the money would be spent on supplementing the library, interactive facilities, and on anything which can assist in the overall aim of improving literacy.

“We have informed many of our pupils’ parents about the competition in our newsletter but so far we have not received many tokens, though I am hopeful for the future.”

However, the juniors at key stage two, aged between seven and 11 have, with the assistance of Mr Price, formed their own council and it is they who will decide how best to spend the prize money should they win.

There is currently a business enterprise group comprised of second-year pupils who create businesses with the aim of raising money for their school.

All of the profits made from their small shop, run by the pupils, is put back into education.

Pupils, their families and teachers are urged to team up to collect tokens appearing in the newspaper, with four prizes available in each of three categories – primary and first schools, secondary, middle and high schools and special needs schools.

First prize is £2,500 second is £1,500 while the third and fourth-placed schools in each section will receive £500 each. More than 50 schools in the North East have signed up for the competition which is run on a tokens-per-pupil basis, meaning the smaller schools can compete with their larger counterparts.

There will be updates on the competition run in association with Barclays in The Journal over the coming weeks, allowing people to track their school’s progress.

Tokens will continue to appear in The Journal every day until July 11.