SCHOOLS across the county have entered an Oxford Mail competition to win a facelift worth thousands of pounds.

We will be giving one lucky primary school the chance to win £7,500 worth of building work in our School Build Save Our Schools (SOS) competition, courtesy of Leadbitter Construction.

Soon the finalists will be picked and the 10 schools will go head to head to collect as many SOS vouchers as they can to secure the prize The Abingdon-based construction group will then carry out the work on the winning school in the summer holidays.

Botley Primary School, in Elms Road, has applied for the money to repair cracks in walls, fix loose carpet and lino and to remove mould.

Year Five pupils Elspeth Horn and Tamara Fuller wrote to the Oxford Mail to explain how they would spend the money.

They said: “We think our school most deserves the award because it’s 71 years old and quite a few of our classrooms have got mould in the corners.

“It’s quite disgusting to look at and isn’t very pleasant for the pupils.

“There are also lots of deep cracks around our building.

“Usually in the Year Three and Four classroom the carpet rolls up and the teacher has to tape it back down. Downstairs, we’ve had to tape up a window because it won’t shut.

“It’s very frustrating to know we have such a nice school and it’s kind of ruined by just some mould and some cracks.”

Eynsham Community Primary School, near Witney, would like to update its swimming pool changing rooms.

Headteacher Zena Vass said: “At present, our changing rooms are archaic, dilapidated and uninviting.

“The children love swimming and it is an essential and life-saving skill for us all to learn.

“If we’re lucky enough to win we would improve the surface around the pool and provide seats for parents to watch and enjoy.”

Longworth Primary School, near Abingdon, which this year started serving hot lunches for the first time, has also applied.

It hopes to win so it can make improvements to its kitchen.

Headteacher Sandra North said: “In addition to serving hot meals daily, we would like to run a breakfast club from September.

“Our kitchen at present is very tiny and we would like to expand it, enabling us to offer our children an even better service.

“The layout of our present kitchen is not ideal, and we would like to install a larger oven, along with extra cupboard space.”

awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk