THE first entries for the Oxford Mail contest which will see one school win a £7,500 makeover are beginning to come in.

For the fourth time, we have teamed up with Abingdon-based construction company Leadbitter to offer one primary school £7,500 worth of improvements.

Since the competition launched in 2009, dozens of schools have come up with imaginative ideas for how to improve their surroundings and four have received their dream makeover.

Staff, pupils and parents at the Gateway Primary School, Carterton, are hoping their idea of a trim trail will be in with a chance of winning.

Headteacher Elaine Roberts said: “We already have one trim trail in the school which is for the use of our older children.

“But all the other children have asked for a similar piece of equipment for them to use.

“We have enormous grounds with very little in the grounds to do.

“This would enable our children to not only play on it at lunchtimes and playtimes but we would also be able to incorporate it into fitness lessons, PE lessons, and a fitness club afterschool.”

Trim trails are special kinds of obstacle courses which are used to develop balance, strength and co-ordination.

Mrs Roberts said: “To have that sort of equipment along with special flooring costs £6,000 or £7,000, which is beyond us at the moment.

“Our parents’ association is trying very hard to fundraise but you can imagine that takes a long time.

“When we saw this advertised we thought we should just go for it.”

About 85 per cent of the 280 pupils at the school are from service families due to the school’s proximity to RAF Brize Norton and she said she hoped, if shortlisted, the school’s military links would capture the community’s imagination.

The trim trail would be for pupils in years one to five at the school.

Leadbitter operations director Ian Batchelor said: “It’s about giving the schools something a little extra they wouldn’t get from other funding.

“We never cease to be amazed by the invention of different ideas and different concepts.”

Schools still have just over two weeks to put their scheme forward, by sending the application form, right, to the Oxford Mail, Osney Mead, Oxford, OX2 0EJ. Entries must be in by June 14.

Applications should explain their proposed project and its benefits in at least 300 words, accompanied by drawings, photographs and statements from pupils, parents and the wider community. Projects should not need planning permission or major structural change.

A shortlist of 10 finalists will then battle it out, competing to collect the highest number of special tokens which will be printed in the Mail.

Numbers collected will be weighted according to each school’s size.