Schools are in the money from

Two schools in the Wishaw area are celebrating an early Christmas present after bagging a whopping £22,000 from supermarket giant Tesco.

St Aidan’s Primary School in Wishaw received £ 12,000 from Tesco’s Bags of Help funding initiative while pupils at Morningside Primary were delighted to receive £10,000.

The supermarket teamed up with Groundwork to launch the second round of its Bags of Help funding initiative, which sees grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 – all raised from the 5p bag levy – being awarded to outdoor community projects.

Tony McElroy, Tesco’s head of communications in Scotland, said: “Bags of Help has been a fantastic success.

“We have been overwhelmed by the response of our customers and it’s been great to give people a say on how the money will be spent in their community.

“We can’t wait to see the projects come to life.”

Morningside Primary plan to use the money to improve the grounds so that the children can have a stimulating playground and create more opportunities for outdoor learning.

Primary five, six and seven pupils at the school helped contribute by having a bag packing morning at Tesco’s Wishaw store in Belhaven Road last month.

Meanwhile, St Aidan’s will use their cash to transform part of the school grounds to include a sensory garden and learning zone for pupils and people living with dementia in the local community.

The creation of the new sensory garden will see pupils and people living with dementia come together to share outdoor learning. As well as planting different foods and plants, the partnership will see the two generations learn from each other and enjoy the space.

St Aidan’s parent council chairman Tony McCabe said: “It is a real honour to be working alongside Alzheimer Scotland to bring this inter-generational project to our school.

“Our goal is to make longstanding relationships with the local community to allow every person to gain a lasting benefit from working with our school, no matter the persons age.”