PARENTS and schools have been urged to take their final chance to enter an Oxford Mail contest for £7,500 of Olympic-themed improvements.

Monday is the deadline for our Olympic Save Our Schools contest, which offers primary schools across Oxfordshire the opportunity to apply for renovations, refurbishments or improvements to their school.

The Oxford Mail has teamed up with Abingdon-based construction company Leadbitter for a second year after the success of last year’s School Build SOS competition, which saw schools vying with each other to collect tokens to win the makeover.

North Kidlington Primary School was crowned winner last year, after pupils, staff and the wider community collected thousands of specially-printed tokens, and the school now has a new bird hide.

This year the focus is on sport and organisers are looking for examples of projects which could inspire youngsters to become the athletes of the future.

Oxford Mail promotions manager Jo Coady said: “The news at the moment is all about the kind of cuts that everyone is having to face.

“Even in times of plenty, most school budgets don’t stretch to the little extras which can make a real difference to the lives of children who study there.

“We’ve already heard some great ideas for getting children more involved in sport, but we want to hear from every school which could benefit from the money before we make our decisions.”

Improvements need to be sustainable, and must not need planning permission or building regulations.

They could be changing rooms, swimming pool improvements, viewing or seating areas, tennis nets, lane markers, or refurbishment to existing facilities.

The budget for the project would need to cover materials and labour, with the intention being for the work to be carried out during the school summer holidays.

Leadbitter regional manager Richard Nixon said: “I would rally schools one final time to get something in to us.

“Hopefully this will be a win-win for them, we will not only undertake some work for the school but also do something which will make a difference for them in the future.”

Once the deadline has passed, judges from the Oxford Mail and Leadbitter will sit down to shortlist schemes to go forward.

They will all be publicised in the Oxford Mail with vouchers printed alongside each story.

Then schools will be challenged to collect as many tokens as possible, which will be mathematically weighted according to the number of pupils at each school.

The school which collects the most tokens will then see their scheme getting the thumbs up, and pupils should be able to use the new facilities by the beginning of the September 2010 school year.