ST Mary’s Infant School in Frensham is bidding to bag a cash boost from the Tesco Bags of Help initiative.

Tesco teamed up with Groundwork to launch the monthly funding scheme, which sees grants of £5,000, £2,000 and £1,000 – all raised from the 5p bag levy – being awarded to local outdoor community projects.

Three groups in every Tesco region have been shortlisted to receive the cash award and this month shoppers are being invited to visit Tesco stores to vote for who they think should take away the top grant.

St Mary’s School is one of the groups on the shortlist. Headteacher Jennifer Downing said: “We want to transform an unloved area of garden to become an integral part of our school.

“Our new library now gives us direct access to the site and we want to enhance it to make it a beautiful outside space for our children to observe wildlife.

“The regeneration of this area of disused garden will give our pupils a quiet outside area to read and to be ‘hands on’ growing plants.”

Voting is open in stores until January 28. Customers will cast their vote using a token given to them at the check-out in store each time they shop.

Tesco’s Bags of Help project has already delivered over £24 million to more than 2,400 projects up and down the UK. Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups each month.

Lindsey Crompton, head of community at Tesco, said: “We are absolutely delighted to open the voting for January. There are some fantastic projects on the shortlists and we can’t wait to see them come to life in hundreds of communities.”