PARENTS are being urged to put pressure on their primary schools to sign up for the Oxford Mail’s SOS competition.

We have teamed up with Abingdon construction company Leadbitter for the second year running to offer one lucky school improvements worth up to £7,500.

But there are just 11 days to come up with project ideas and we don’t want to schools to miss out.

Oxford Mail newspaper sales manager Margaret Marsh said: “We want lots of entries with exciting and inspirational ideas. It’s a fantastic opportunity for schools and I would urge parents to make sure their primary school doesn’t miss out.

“School budgets are always tight – this is a chance to spend some money on some added extras. But time is running out.”

Last year, North Kidlington Primary School won our Schools Build Save Our Schools competition. And they have a new bird hide as a result.

Leadbitter also carried out improvements to Eynsham Primary School’s swimming pool.

This year’s competition has a sporting flavour to get youngsters fired up about the 2012 Olympics. New changing rooms or improved playing fields are just two ideas that could prove winning entries.

The deadline for applications is Monday, June 14. Entries need to explain the project, outlining its benefits and how it will be sustainable. Projects must not need planning permission or building regulations.

Judges will meet on Wednesday, June 16, to select the finalists.

Each will be profiled in the Oxford Mail and the race will then be to collect as many SOS tokens as possible.

Unlike last year, the tokens will be math-ematically weighted so bigger schools do not have an advantage over smaller primaries.

Every token counts!