Delighted pupils and staff at three Wolverhampton special schools are celebrating after scooping a combined jackpot of £20,000 given away by the Express & Star.

Green Park, in Bilston, pi pped 187 other schools from across the West Midlands and Staffordshire to win the coveted £10,000 first prize in the Cash 4 Our Schools competition.

Joint second placed Broadmeadow and Tettenhall Wood schools were also awarded £5,000 each during last night’s presentation at the Civic Hall.

Click on the image on the right to see our picture gallery from the presentation night.

Twelve other schools from Wolverhampton, Walsall, Stafford, Dudley, Sandwell, Stourbridge and Wombourne also won £100 each and a certificate after finishing in the top 15 of the competition.

Cash 4 Our Schools, which began in October, challenged pupils, staff and families to collect a series of tokens.

And 60,000 pupils collected about 175 million points between them by the end of the competition, with each school total being divided by the number of pupils it had, to decide the winning schools.

The prizes were handed out by Express & Star editor Adrian Faber in front of more than 200 people.

Green Park School, in Stowlawn, managed to collect almost 14 million points to win the competition and overjoyed headteacher Lorraine Dawney said the windfall would pay for a new sensory walkway at their new school building.

She said: “We have this wonderful new building but we have a lot of development work to carry out.

“The children said they would like to make an outdoor learning environment and this money will pay for a sensory walkway. This money will probably cover the cost completely, which is great.”

Broadmeadow School collected more than 2.6 million points and headteacher Karen Warrington said the cash would kickstart a major fundraising drive to refurbish the school playground.

She said: “It will cost between £35-40,000 so we are off to a really good start.

“It will also help us to bid for other grants because it always looks good when you are asking for money if you can say you have got some already.”

Tettenhall Wood School collected more than 4.7 million points to be one of the top three.

Headteacher Mostyn Mahoney said: “All the co-ordination work was done by one person, our inclusion facilitator Natalie Shirley. She has done a remarkable job.”

Other celebrating schools included Pens Meadow, in Brierley Hill, where staff put their £100 towards refurbishing their sensory room, and Loxdale Primary School, in Chapel Street, Bilston, which is asking pupils how to spend its £100.

The event was compered by Wolf FM radio presenter Dicky Dodd.

The finalists were:

Bilston Nursery School Children’s Centre, Wolverhampton Street
Broadmeadow Special School, Lansdowne Road, Wolverhampton
Bushbury Nursery School, Bushbury Lane, Bushbury
Cherry Trees Special Primary School, Giggetty Lane, Wombourne,
Green Park School, Green Park Avenue, Stowlawn, Bilston
Greenhall Nursery, Second Avenue, Stafford
Loxdale Primary School, Chapel Street, Bilston
Marshbrook First School, Teddesley Road, Penkridge
New Park School, Valley Park Campus, Whitmore Reans, Wolverhampton
Old Hall Community Special School, Bentley Lane, Walsall
Old Park School, Corbyn Road, Russells Hall, Dudley
Pens Meadow School, Brierley Hill Road, Wordsley, Stourbridge
Rowley View Nursery School, Dangerfield Lane, Wednesbury
St John’s Primary, Wombourne Road, Dudley
Tettenhall Wood School, School Road, Tettenhall Wood, Wolverhampton