Tesco Buckingham shoppers donate £1,500 to local school

An out-of-bounds site at Buckingham Primary School has been transformed into a state-of-the-art play area for today's pupils and generations to come.

The fun-filled regeneration came about after shoppers voted for £1,500 to be awarded to the Buckingham Primary School Parent Teacher Association (PTA) school as part of Tesco's Stronger Starts campaign – an £ 8 million grants programme in partnership with the charity Groundwork UK.

The donation from Tesco has helped the primary school to transform an unused area of the playground into a play area with brand-new outdoor play equipment for its key stage two students.

Susan Fish, Chair of the PTA at Buckingham Primary School, said "The Tesco Stronger Starts initiative has once again been a huge support to Buckingham Primary School, contributing significantly to replacing the outdoor play equipment.

"This project means an area that was off limits due to safety reasons can now be used again by the pupils, and in a better way than it's ever been used before. This will completely change how the outdoor play area is used by the children at the school, providing opportunities for creative play outside of simply playing on the playground.

"This has been an ongoing goal for the PTA for some time and we are so grateful to Tesco, Groundwork, and the people of Buckingham for helping us achieve this goal. We are so excited to have this project completed, and the positive impact will be felt for many years to come."

The Stronger Starts grants are there to help organisations provide educational programmes, sports equipment, nutritious food, and healthy activities to children.

Jessica McCulloch, Tesco's Community Engagement Manager for East, Wales and Midlands, added: "It's great to see Buckingham Primary School PTA showing such dedication to providing pupils with new playground equipment that will appeal to significantly more children, and stimulate more physical and creative play.

"It's organisations like this that explain why our Tesco Stronger Starts grant programme exists, as it shows first-hand how our donations can positively impact local communities."

Organisations can apply for a Stronger Starts grant by going online at www.tescoplc.com/strongerstarts.

Successful applications will go to a vote in local Tesco stores, where customers choose which of the three projects they'd like to support by voting with a blue token.

Since Tesco launched its Community Grants programme in 2016, more than £100million has been given to more than 50,000 local schools and community groups.