Managers of the Spar shop on Grantham Road in Sleaford approached nearby St Botolph’s School at Quarrington to get involved in the re-launch of the store, following completion of work to extend and refurbish the shop.

The Spar bosses wanted to work closely with the school to promote healthy living, which tied in with the school’s own healthy lifestyles initiative. The Spar shop sponsored a poster making competition to advertise healthy eating and healthy lifestyles and received lots of entries from the pupils.

Separated into age groups, there were three winners: Harry Goodwin, aged five from Key Stage One, Scarlott Dannett, aged eight, from lower Key Stage Two and Jasmin Vilder, 10, of upper Key Stage Two.

Harry was chosen as the overall winner and he was given the honour of cutting the ribbon at the opening ceremony.

Key stage One children already get free fruit daily, so the Spar provided free apples and bananas to the Key Stage Two children on the day the competition winners were announced and presented with their awards.

The Spar shop is looking at other ways to work with the school in the future, including the possibility of a shoppers’ scheme where tokens collected for spending money at the store can be given to the school to spend on healthy playground equipment.