Primary Schools have already earnt £3 million through Asda’s Cashpot for Schools Initiative Teachers and PTA’s urge shoppers to sign up to support their local schools, with millions still available for primary schools across the UK

Asda’s Cashpot for Schools initiative, fronted by Joe Wicks, launched on 2nd September, and has hit the landmark figure of £3 million raised for primary schools across the UK – with another eight weeks left to go.

The industry-first campaign sees the retailer donate 0.5% of the value of its customers’ shopping to a primary school of their choice every time they shop using Asda Rewards - with £7.5 million up for grabs in total.

All 22,000 state-funded UK primary schools can get involved, and the scheme has over 21,500 signed up already with over 15 schools having over £1,000 of funding already in their cashpots, and over 1750 boasting cashpots over £300.

The supermarket kicked off each school fund with £50 and in addition is topping up each school cashpot with an extra £1 for every customer that selects their school via the Asda Rewards app – with no impact on the customer’s own Asda Rewards Cashpot. Shoppers and schools can also see the running total that has been raised for their school in the app once they have opted in.

Signing up for the initiative is simple – with customers simply required to opt into Cashpot for Schools in the app and select their school of choice. Cashpot for schools in the app. As well as encouraging parents to sign up – schools are encouraging their entire community to support them – as the initiative is open to all.

The campaign comes on the back of research that some parents are spending up to £138 per year to support their children’s schools, with the research also revealing the most significantly underfunded needs are school trips (64 per cent), books and learning materials (52 per cent), and sports equipment (50 per cent).

Stephen Bromby, Asda Community Champion at Boston has been in his local community to tell schools about the initiative and has seen over £4,200 raised so far for local schools in his area. John Ailsby, School Business Manager at Hawthorn Tree Primary School Boston, said: “We’ve already seen over £500 raised for our school so far, which we are so delighted with. This might not seem a lot, but it will make a huge difference to us as it is funding we wouldn’t otherwise get and doesn’t take up our resources to raise it. We’re not stopping there; we are encouraging parents and the local community to sign up via our social media to try and raise as much as possible. It would be amazing to hit £1000 by the end of the campaign! The money we raise will be used to help stock our incredibly new library that we fundraised for last year, as well as helping towards our next project: creating a much-needed community space in school for family learning sessions and other community projects.”

Asda has partnered with charity Parentkind on the initiative, who have provided data for all 22,000 state funded primary schools in the UK – allowing families to select their school of choice in the app. Parentkind is conducting diligence on all school bank data to ensure that, when the campaign closes, Cashpots can be transferred to schools for them to invest in the resources they need.

Schools and parents can also download assets to help raise more money for schools which includes, letters, newsletters, social cards, letter header, poster and leaflet at Cashpot for Schools toolkit | Parentkind.