THREE Launceston area educational settings are among groups who are benefitting of thousands of pounds of supermarket funding.

Tesco’s Bags of Help scheme has awarded £12,000 to Lewannick School, £5,000 to Tregadillett School, and £2,000 to Launceston Pre-school.

St Teath Play Equipment Association will also benefit from £1,000 from Tesco.

Bags of Help is a community grant scheme funded by the 5p carrier bag charge. Supported by environmental improvement charity Groundwork, Bags of Help is funding thousands of outdoor community projects across the UK.

Lewannick School will be using its £12,000 grant for expansion of the outdoor classroom to include greater opportunities for physical development and sensory experiences. It will also be a facility shared with older pupils and the community.

Stephanie Cook, assistant head teacher, said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to develop our project. This will provide the younger pupils of our school and the wider community with an exciting and creative area to explore, play and learn.”

Tregadillett School’s £5,000 is for an outdoor classroom and garden project.

Head teacher Stuart Tulloch said: “We would like to thank everyone for voting and special thanks to Tesco and Groundwork. We look forward to developing our outside learning area.”

Launceston Pre-school’s £2,000 will be put towards a mud kitchen for their recently improved outside area.

Pre-school supervisor Kate Stringer said: “Launceston Pre-School is a charity run organisation offering education for children aged two years and over. All monies raised go back into funding resources for the children. We would like to thank Tesco for this grant and their continued support.”

St Teath’s playing equipment was condemned last year after becoming corroded, and it was taken away. The St Teath Play Equipment Association was formed to raise funds in a quest for new play equipment for the park. Tesco’s £1,000 grant will be put towards these efforts.

Jan Phillips, community enabler, Groundwork South, who helped present the cheque to Tregadillett, said: “As well as being able to have some much needed improvements to their projects, one of the side benefits of Groundwork Trusts assisting the community groups in partnership with Tesco on Bags of Help, is increasing their confidence in being able to seek and apply for funding and receive help to develop their ideas. The scheme has just changed and is now for a wider range of projects that are for community benefit, so I would like to encourage people to have a look at the website to see if they are now eligible to apply.’’

Voting periods will now last for two months in store and grants of £4,000, £2,000 and £1,000 will be awarded.

Mike Hart, store manager at Launceston Tesco, said: “We are delighted that these local projects have benefitted from the scheme and would encourage other groups to apply at www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp.”