Exclusive by Alan Quick

A PRIMARY school near Crediton is to receive almost £10,000 it has been announced by the Big Lottery Fund.

Sandford School will receive £9,985 towards its Playground Regeneration Project.

The school will use the funding to install new play equipment on the school grounds.

The Big Lottery Fund said the funding will create new opportunities for play and physical activity in this rurally isolated area that lacks appropriate outdoor facilities.

Sandford School is one of 81 community projects across the South West announced today, Tuesday, October 11, as receiving a total of £2.4 million from the Fund.

Miss Lois Briard, head teacher at Sandford School said that the plan for the £15,000 “trim trail”, complete with a range of play equipment and wet pour surfacing underneath it “will be a great new addition for the school”.

Explaining that the plan for the play area had been in the pipeline for some years, she explained that the children had chosen some of the equipment which will be included.

Miss Briard said that the Friends of Sandford School (FOSS) had raised more than £4,000 towards the project costs through a range of fundraising activities over a period of time and she thanked not only past and present members of FOSS but also particularly Alison Truelove, a FOSS trustee, who played a significant part in helping lead fundraising and helped behind the scenes with the project.

The new play area, which will be located alongside the upper playground, will be available for use by all the children at the school.

Miss Briard added that the worn away markings on the upper playground will also be re-painted as part of the project.

The play equipment will include a traverse wall, Burma bridge, log steps, tyres and beams, exercise bars and other items.

She said she hoped that the new play area would be in place by the end of the Christmas holidays.

Pam Barnard, Co-Chair of Sandford School of Governors, expressed thanks on behalf of the school and governors for the lottery award.

She said it was “brilliant news” for the school and its “challenging site” located on the side of a very steep hill.

Children at the school were just as enthusiastic.

Charlotte said: “Our school is going to have the best playground ever - it will be awesome” and Tierney said: “There will be a lot of happy children when we get the new equipment”.

Otto said he was looking forward to the arrival of the “trim trail” and Josh said he was really looking forward to not only the new equipment but also having the markings replaced on the playground alongside where he likes to play football.

Finley said: “A big thank you to the Big Lottery Fund for giving us the money. The new play area will be a great addition.”

Gilly said: “I’m really looking forward to the ‘trim trail’. We had one at my last school but this one sounds like it will be much better.”