A SENSE of empowerment, freedom and excitement filters through the Mabel Prichard Special School playground thanks to some help from the Gannett Foundation.

Funding of £4,500 nearly two years ago opened the doors to play equipment accessible for all children at the Blackbird Leys school, and teachers say it has been a great success.

New equipment made it possible for children in wheelchairs to have more freedom when playing and helped buy a wheelchair-accessible swing.

Assistant headteacher of the upper school Tracy Jameson said: "Specifically the funding helped buy the wheelchair swing, which proved a very popular piece of equipment.

"You only have to see children in wheelchairs in a playground to realise how few pieces of equipment they can actually access.

"A sense of power and excitement this equipment brought to so many, to swing up high and to be on a piece of equipment by yourself.

"The freedom and thrill... there was just huge excitement to get on the swing in their wheelchairs on their own.

"It was a huge success."

The school applied to the Gannett Foundation – which has just launched its application process for another year – in 2014 and was selected as the winner of the £4,500 grant which set the ball rolling for even more funding, allowing a complete overhaul of the play areas at the school.

A soft cycle track was also put in alongside the swing and dedicated fundraising over the past two years has since seen the school raised its target of £25,000 for the project.

Plans include creating a new sensory garden for the special school and it will continue fundraising for this including a family fun day which is being hosted on September 10 from midday in Cuddesdon Way.

Ms Jameson added: "The Gannett Foundation is a great funding opportunity no question and in an area beset by Government cuts economically, young people and especially those with learning difficulties and physical disabilities sometimes miss out.

"Funding organisations such as Gannett Foundation helped make it possible to give all children the same accessibility, which bought about a very exciting sense of empowerment for the children and it is wonderful to see the children's confidence grow.

"It is a particularly generous foundation and the amount of paper work schools face with institutions such as Lottery funding is gigantic.

"But although Gannett does have the paper work, it is not to the extent of those other institutions, so it makes it much more accessible."

This year's application process is now open and for the first time funding opportunities have been opened up to scouting groups and brownie groups.

Each year a special theme is chosen and this year is the needs of rural communities, although all applications that meet the general criteria will be given equal consideration.

The closing date for applications is Friday, October 14, and forms can be found at oxfordmail.co.uk/gannettfoundation