Merton’s Gorringe Park Primary School in Mitcham wants shoppers’ votes to be in with a chance of benefiting from £12,000 which would fund improvement works to its play area.

Merton Council cabinet member for education Councillor Caroline Cooper-Marbiah, Headteacher Simon Elledge and Leo, Jessica, Kane and Izaac.

The school has already been successful in securing funding through the Tesco’s Bags of Help initiative, and now pupils are calling on residents to vote at their local Tesco for their playground project so they receive the full £12,000 on offer.

From 26 September, the public will be able to vote. Deadline for votes is 9 October. With every shop, customers will be given a token and they can drop it into a box in selected stores to vote for their favourite project. Dropping the token in the box labelled Gorringe Park Primary School will help the school win the maximum £12,000 on offer.

The school has exciting plans for the money, which will be used to create an outdoor gym and develop a garden where the children can grow flowers, fruit and vegetables.

Merton Council cabinet member for education Councillor Caroline Cooper-Marbiah said: “It is great that Gorringe have been successful in securing funding, but it’s down to residents now to make sure they vote for school when they do their household shop. The money will make a huge difference to the school and allow them to really enhance their playground. Let’s all get behind the school and support them in this.”

Gorringe Park Headteacher Simon Elledge said: “It’s great we have been successful in our bid for money to help improve our playground, but now we’re calling on shoppers to vote for us as we can benefit from the full £12,000. It will really help us create an outdoor area that will benefit all our children.”

Kane, nine, said: “People should vote for us because more people would come to the school if we had a nice garden. Maybe if it looked nice it would raise the population of the school.”