WE’VE won!

Excited pupils and staff at Eling Infant School near Totton are looking forward to seeing their tired playground transformed after winning the Daily Echo’s School Build Challenge.

The school has scooped the top prize of £3,000 of work from construction firm Leadbitter after a great effort collecting tokens.

Almost 20,000 tokens were collected by schools, parents and friends as the 16 shortlisted finalists battled it out to see their building projects become a reality, but it was Eling that had the most per pupil.

The Waterside school finished top, followed by Townhill Infant School in Southampton and Shepherds Down School in Compton, near Winchester.

“We’re over the moon,” said Eling’s excited head teacher, Beverly Smith.

“It’s just really exciting, we’re really thrilled, really grateful.

“The nice thing is it’s the community that’s done it – everybody’s got involved, which has been brilliant.”

The school wants to transform its tired and tatty playground into an exciting area for the young pupils, replacing old and rickety equipment that has had to be repaired time and again.

“We’ve started planning already and the kids are putting lots and lots of ideas forward,”

said Mrs Smith.

“It’s captured their imaginations from the beginning and it does mean a lot to the children, they’ve been so excited since we found out we’d won. I think that’s why they’ve got to be involved in the decision making.”

The school will now begin working with Leadbitter to choose the exact play equipment they want, and draw up detailed plans of how the redesigned playground will look.

Regional director, David Cook said he is looking forward to helping Eling, and the other winners to realise their dreams.

Townhill wants to create an area to grow vegetables that can be used for cooking at lunchtime, and Shepherds Down is looking for some new raised planting beds where youngsters can experience growing flowers and vegetables.

But the other finalists will not entirely miss out, as Leadbitter is donating a tree for each of them to plant in their grounds.

Mr Cook said he had been delighted with the way schools have reacted to the School Build Challenge.

He said: “I think the whole competition has gone better than we thought it would. The number of responses we had and the fact we had to increase the number of shortlisted entries was testament to that.”

The Winners

■ First prize (£3,000): Eling Infant School, near Totton.

■ Second prize (£2,000): Townhill Infant School, Southampton.

■ Third prize (£1,000): Shepherds Down School, Compton, near Winchester.