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.

Fourth place: Ethos Pupil Referral Unit, Rawthorpe £1,500

A FOCUSSED effort by the school’s dedicated team of staff, pupils and parents and carers have helped the unit achieve this win.

The unit is for pupils of all ages who are not attending mainstream school for a variety of reasons.

Headteacher Ritch Barras said the money would be used for a variety of trips and excursions which pupils would not otherwise have the opportunity to experience, such as museum visits, theatre trips and nature excursions.

Teacher Sean Legg helped organise the collecting bid.

"This is the one opportunity in the year where we can focus and achieve like any mainstream school and everyone has really supported our efforts again this year," Mr Barras added.

Third place: Netherton Infant and Nursery School £2,000

A TREMENDOUS community effort is what has helped the school achieve third place for the second year running.

Headteacher Elizabeth Morris said: "We’re just a little school, but we’ve had amazing support, from pensioners walking to school with vouchers to local businesses collecting for us."

The school is using the cash to help transform its outdoor and conservation area, which is 18-years-old, and create raised beds to grow their own fruit and vegetables.

Second place: Wilberlee Junior and Infant School, Slaithwaite £2,500

PLAYTIME will be even greater fun at this school thanks to its Examiner win.

The school is planning to buy large play equipment, including a climbing frame, to get children playing outside in the fresh air at the picturesque school.

Co-ordinator Pauline Wood said the school and its pupils and staff were "absolutely over the moon" with the win.

"We missed out by a whisker last year and to receive the news that we had won this year was unbelievable," said Pauline.

"We all worked really hard to collect the tokens, it was a real school and community effort and we’re delighted."

Winners/First place: Cumberworth First School, £3,000HEADTEACHER Simon Sloan was "staggered" after receiving the news that the school, which has just 90 pupils, was the first prize winner.

But he said the success was down to the "well orchestrated effort" by parent governor Janet Jepson and school bursar Marina Davis, along with the school and wider community who got involved with the collecting campaign.

Children were sent home with stickers the day before online tokens were due to appear and a weekly classroom prize was also presented during the collecting period.

The school is planning to celebrate the win and spend some of the cash by organising an arts week which will welcome artists and writers into school to work with children.

Mr Sloan is also keen to have some lasting artwork in school to reflect the win and would like to work with ceramic and structural artists to that effect.