EXCITEMENT is growing in West Kidlington Primary School as pupils, staff and the wider community pull together in a bid to win £7,500 of improvements.

The school is one of six primaries across Oxfordshire in with a chance of winning this year’s School Build SOS competition.

For the fourth year, the Oxford Mail has teamed up with Abingdon-based construction company Leadbitter to offer one school a revamp worth £7,500.

After being shortlisted as a finalist, the school is trying to come up with ways to collect as many vouchers as possible to be in with a chance of winning their dream project – an indoor-outdoor museum.

Deputy headteacher Matthew Coatsworth said: “We have got lots of tokens arriving, lots of children talking about the ways in which they are trying to get all their friends and family to collect tokens, but we are still desperate for more.

“The children are really coming up with novel and innovative ways to help us out.”

Ideas include the school choir planning a performance outside Kidlington Tesco on Friday at 1.30pm.

Mr Coatsworth said: “We are hoping people will enjoy the music, enjoy being part of the local community then buy their copy of the Oxford Mail. We will have a set of scissors ready to cut the tokens out as they walk out.”

The school wants to create a museum with retractable walls, and artefacts which would change depending on the lessons taking place.

Mr Coatsworth said: “We have amassed a great deal of very interesting and unusual objects over the last few years and continue to do so.

“We would like to be able to share some of those things not just with the children in our own school, but also the other schools in Kidlington and other growns-ups as well.

“The children are very keen to share their experiences with the local community.”

North Kidlington Primary School was the first winner of the contest – a campaign which was backed by the West Kidlington primary community, and Mr Coatsworth said he hoped other schools which weren’t in the running for this year’s prize would get behind their proposals.

Mr Coatsworth said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to have been shortlisted. We are delighted so many children are making so much of an effort to collect as many tokens as possible.”

All the finalists’ proposals are being profiled this week, with tokens being printed in the Oxford Mail alongside each story until Monday. A golden token worth five normal tokens will be printed at some point during the campaign. It is down to the schools to collect tokens from parents, teachers, grandparents and supporters.

Photocopies will not be accepted.

The tokens will be weighted mathematically according to the size of the school.

Tomorrow we focus on plans to refurbish an outdoor classroom at Charlton-on-Otmoor Primary School. Buy the Oxford Mail daily to collect as many tokens as possible to make your school's dreams come true...

FINALISTS AND WHERE TO SEND TOKENS: Outdoor stage and reading house, Bampton Primary School, Bowling Green Close, Bampton, OX18 2NJ.

Outdoor classroom refurbishment, Charlton-on-Otmoor Primary School, Fencott Road, Charlton-on-Otmoor, Kidlington, OX5 2UT.

Refurbished outdoor toilet block, Mill Lane Primary School, Mill Lane, Chinnor, OX39 4RF.

Music room revamp, St Joseph’s Primary School, Headley Way, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7SX.

Sensory garden, St Nicholas Primary School, Raymund Road, Old Marston, Oxford, OX3 0PJ.

Indoor-outdoor museum, West Kidlington Primary School, Oxford Road, Kidlington, OX5 1EA