Examiner Schools: Collect for Cash winners 2009 announced

Nov 5 2009 By Joanne Douglas

THE waiting is finally over!

Today we announce the winners of this year’s Schools Collect for Cash contest.

And the lucky winner of the top prize, sponsored by Barclays, is Cumberworth First School.

This year’s event was the biggest ever with Examiner staff counting their way through a mammoth 61,302 paper tokens and 4,938 online tokens.

The £10,000 pot of cash was divided five ways with Cumberworth First School getting the £3,000 main prize.

Second is Wilberlee Junior and Infant School, Slaithwaite, which gets £2,500. Netherton Infant and Nursery School is third, receiving £2,000. Fourth place, with £1,500, goes to Rawthorpe’s Ethos Pupil Referral Unit and fifth place, with £1,000, goes to Wellhouse Junior and |Infant School in Golcar, who were last year’s overall winner.

The Examiner printed tokens in the newspaper for more than five weeks in September and October, with the schools collecting the most tokens in relation to the size of their school, winning the big cash prizes.

Examiner editor Roy Wright said the effort by all the schools involved had been “phenomenal” adding: “Cash for Schools has really caught people’s imagination with pupils, staff, friends and relatives all rallying around doing all they could to win cash for their local school.”

Barclays has again put up the £10,000 cash for the scheme as part of its community investment programme.

Stuart Ambler, Huddersfield branch manager, said: “Congratulations to all the winning schools.

“We are delighted that after all their hard work the schools can spend the money in such a positive way.”

Fifth place: Wellhouse Junior and Infant School, Golcar £1,000

THIS school was last year’s main winner, but acting assistant headteacher Anne Firth is just as delighted that the school has won a prize.

"You can’t come first every year, but we’re delighted that with only 45 pupils we have won £1,000," she said.

Mrs Firth said the school had worked hard to encourage everyone to take part, including putting up a banner and letting parents know when the voucher was in the paper.

The money will be used to help transform an overgrown piece of land near the school into a garden and haven for wildlife.