KEEP SHOPPING-KEEP HELPING THE SCHOOL

Shop 'Til You Drop to Benefit the School.

Latest Total:- £74.21 (as at September 22nd)

Bishop Monkton Primary School Parent Teachers' Association thank everyone who has, so far, supported their appeal to help raise money for school funds and it really couldn't be any easier-simply shop at ASDA. It continues to be very grateful for any support so far received from parents, villagers and friends of the school who have downloaded the store's reward app and hope many more people (and their friends and families) will sign-up to help swell the coffers of the PTA.

Launched at the beginning of this month, ASDA's “Cashpot for Schools” initiative is donating 0.5% of the value of a customer's shopping to a primary school of that customer's choice. The scheme runs until the end of November and, in the first 72 hours of its launch, almost £1m was donated from hundreds of thousands of shoppers. All of the country's 22,000 state funded primary schools are eligible to register for the scheme.

All that is necessary is to download the company's Rewards App, select a primary school of choice and then shop in store or on-line at ASDA. It does not cost the shopper anything but the selected primary school could receive a substantial injection of welcome cash. Once a customer has opted in and selected a school, then that school's cashpot will have £1 automatically added to it's “account”. When shopping, the app must be scanned before payment, and there is a minimum purchase of £2.

The amount being raised for the school will be visible in the Cashpot section of the app and ASDA will then donate the total through Parentkind, the charitable organisation that is the membership body for schools' PTAs. In addition to the money raised through their customers' shopping, the supermarket chain will also add £50 donation to every school in the scheme.

This scheme was launched in response to concerns over a lack of funding to schools which impacts learning and stretches school budgets to the limit. Funds raised by the village school's PTA now cover the purchase of all new reading books in school, workshops for the children, new tables and chairs and much much more. Monies raised by PTAs in general also help pay, as an example, for school trips, learning materials and sports equipment.