THESE children are hoping their plans for an external learning area and sensory garden will become reality.

Rush Common Primary School, in Hendred Way, Abingdon, is the latest school to enter a competition to win a £7,500 makeover.

For the fourth year running, we have teamed up with Abingdon construction company Leadbitter to offer one lucky primary school thousands of pounds of improvements.

Headteacher Maxine Evans said the ideas for the development, which would see a pond area brought back into use, had come from the children.

She added: “We have a deficit of space, but winning this would be important for a couple of reasons, firstly for the children’s own play, but secondly for child-led learning.

“At the moment, the pond area is fenced off, but if the school won the makeover, that fence could be taken away and the area opened up to the children.”

Mrs Evans added: “We would then have a pond area that would allow us to do science-based activities and minibeast activities (learning about insects) and children could access that space for play and other learning activities.”

Cliff Thomas, regional director of Leadbitter, said he was pleased to see the entries starting to arrive.

He said: “When it comes to fruition, the euphoria of seeing what's achieved totally outweighs that stressful part at the beginning of trying to organise it.

“We are fairly open as to the project and what it is, but we want to see it adding value to the curriculum.”

There are now only 10 days left to enter the competition.

Entries should be sent on the attached form to School Build SOS Campaign, Oxford Mail, Osney Mead, OX2 0EJ by Thursday, June 14.

Applications need to explain the project in at least 300 words, detailing the benefits and how it will be sustainable.

They can be supported by drawings, statements and photographs.

Projects must not need planning permission or major structural changes.

Once all entries are in, a panel of judges from the Oxford Mail and Leadbitter will select ten finalists.

Each project will feature in the Oxford Mail, with tokens printed alongside the stories.

Schools then have to collect as many tokens as possible, which will be mathematically weighted according to the size of the school. The winner will be announced next month