AS THE world awaits the opening games of football’s 2010 World Cup today, the Oxford Mail is offering schoolchildren the chance to live out their own sporting dreams.

The paper has teamed up with Abingdon-based construction company Leadbitter for a second year for the Save Our Schools contest.

The scheme allows primary schools to compete for £7,500 of work to improve sporting facilities.

This year’s contest has been influenced by the London 2012 Olympics, and is intended to help schools provide facilities to develop the athletes of the future.

And as Oxfordshire succumbs to World Cup fever, judges are expecting a deluge of applications from young fans of Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and the rest of the England squad taking part in the tournament in South Africa.

Oxford Mail promotions manager Jo Coady said: “We know just what the World Cup will mean to children across the county.

“The beauty of this competition is that schools can apply for any type of sporting scheme, and that could include improvements to football pitches or applying nice touches to changing rooms.

“We look forward to more schools coming up with imaginative schemes to provide top-class sports provision.”

Leadbitter regional director Richard Nixon said: “It’s all about inspiring young people to get involved with sport, hopefully striving for excellence and thinking about the Olympics in 2012.”

The deadline for applications is Monday. Applications could be for: l New or improved changing rooms l Swimming pool improvements l Tennis/basketball court upgrades l Pitch improvements, viewing areas l Refurbishment of existing facilities.

In fact, applications could be for anything with a sporting flavour that can help inspire children to be our sporting stars of tomorrow and get enthused over the London 2012 Olympics.

If possible, applications should be accompanied by drawings, photographs, and statements from parents, pupils or teachers to back up the application.

Projects must not need planning permission or building regulations consent.

Once the deadline has passed, Oxford Mail and Leadbitter representatives will shortlist the best schemes, which will be featured in the Oxford Mail.

Vouchers will be printed alongside each story and schools will be challenged to collect as many tokens as possible.

The school which collects the most tokens will then see their idea come to fruition, and pupils should be able to use the new facilities by September 2010.

The token collections will be mathematically weighted according to the number of pupils at each school.

l Last year’s competition winner was North Kidlington Primary School, which created a bird hide for pupils to use for nature studies.

fbardsley@oxfordmail.co.uk