Thousands up for grabs in our school cash give-away
Feb 22 2010 By Nicola Juncar, The Journal
Tokens for Schools is brought to you by The Journal in partnership with Barclays Money Skills
HOW would you like to win thousands of pounds for your school? Today, The Journal is launching its popular Tokens for Schools competition and the cashpot is bigger than ever before.
The Journal, in partnership with Barclays Money Skills, has £20,000 to give away to schools across our region.
The prize money can be put towards any educational project, from an exciting school trip, to revamping the playground, or how about some new books to bring your library up to date?
The campaign is back after a one-year break. In 2008, 42 schools registered and 14,053 pupils, with the help of their teachers, friends and family, collected more than 40,000 tokens.
This year, we are giving schools extra time to register so we hope even more will sign up to the challenge.
The prize fund is split into three categories – primary/first/middle school; secondary/high school; and special schools.
The first prize for each category is £3,000; second prize is £2,000; third prize is £1,000 and there’s also a fourth prize of £500.
Schools in each category that collect the most tokens based on "tokens per head" will receive the cash. This means that a smaller school has just as much chance to win as a larger school.
Barclays Money Skills programme aims to educate young people about how to manage their finances. Schools which enter can also receive advice from Barclays on how they could spend the money. Stella McRae, community investment manager for Barclays in the North East, said: "Barclays Money Skills is a long-term commitment to increasing the financial capability of young people in the UK.
"It helps individuals develop their confidence and ability to manage money and we want schools to get their pupils involved in managing their potential winnings.
"For example, how much do you need for that trip? How would you split your top prize share of £3,000 between departments that really need funding? We want to see projects involving financial education and therefore any projects with a financial literacy theme will receive 250 tokens added to their total."
Our previous winners include Linton First School, near Morpeth, Northumberland, and Seahouses Middle School, also in Northumberland. Linton First School used the cash to revamp their garden for their green-fingered children, while Seahouses Middle School put it towards buying new music and IT equipment.
To take part, schools must register by completing the registration form, which is being printed in The Journal from today. Once registered, it’s then up to you, your friends and family, pupils and teachers, to collect as many tokens as possible for the chance to win the top prize.
Your application must be received no later than 5pm on Friday, March 19 and tokens will be printed in The Journal Monday to Saturday, starting Monday March 29 until Saturday, May 8, 2010.
Additional bonus tokens will also be printed on some days during the campaign.
So what are you waiting for? Get your copy of today's Journal, send in your completed registration form - and good luck!
