Hartlepool's Shop for Schools campaign is hailed the best yet

More than 20 schools are to be rewarded with new learning materials after a Hartlepool shopping centre's annual campaign was hailed the most successful yet.
Middleton Grange Shopping Centre retail executive Suzanne ChaneyMiddleton Grange Shopping Centre retail executive Suzanne Chaney
Middleton Grange Shopping Centre retail executive Suzanne Chaney

Middleton Grange shopping centre invited customers to convert their pounds spent in at of the mall’s shops into points for their favourite school during the latest Shop For Schools initiative.

It ran for three months from October 1 to December 31 and saw a total of almost 230,000 points donated.

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Since the end of the campaign, all schools have been given the chance to use their donated points to choose from a specially selected list of educational items including outdoor equipment, electronic goods and learning toys.

Lynnfield Primary School gained the most points with 30,828, followed by West View Primary School with 24,528, and Kingsley Primary School with 20,913, making up the top three.

Middleton Grange shopping centre manager Mark Rycraft said the campaign had been its most successful year yet.

“We had an outstanding response from our shoppers during the 2016 campaign,” he said. “We were thrilled to see so many people getting involved and even saw repeat customers coming along to donate their points.

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“One Hartlepool family were extremely generous and donated a massive 12,000 points to the scheme after booking their summer holiday at the centre’s Thomas Cook branch.”

Middleton Grange have been running the campaign, which is backed by the Hartlepool Mail, for more than 10 years.

Customers took advantage of bonus tokens printed in the Mail. And savvy shoppers used receipts from money spent in the centre on Sundays to get double points, and triple on the festive bank holidays.

A total of 23 schools covering the whole age range signed up, including Catcote Academy, and St Hild’s and High Tunstall College of Science secondary schools.

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Mr Rycraft added: “Every school received an impressive amount of points including Lynnfield Primary School, West View Primary School and Kingsley Primary School, who received the most vouchers, and the schools staff are currently in the process of choosing which items they need.

“We can’t thank Middleton Grange shoppers enough for their continued support of our Shop for Schools initiative and we can’t wait for the next rewards scheme to launch later in 2017.”