Signed Coldplay guitar helps pay for school extension

A new extension to a school in Gloucestershire has just been opened, in part thanks to money raised by raffling off a signed Coldplay guitar.

Swell Church of England Primary School near Cheltenham spent £300,000 building a new classroom and toilet blocks.

The £300,000 had been raised by local benefactors and £11,000 was raised in a raffle which included a Coldplay guitar.

Head of school Alison Rawlings said it was an "incredibly large project".

"We were a two-class school but housing three classes so we needed the new space to create a third classroom.

"We also had falling down cloakroom blocks which have been replaced and managed to sneak in getting a beautiful new entrance hall as well as a new headteachers office," she said.

Ground finally broke on the extension earlier this year after the guitar was donated in 2020 to the raffle which raised £11,000 in total.

A parent of the school had a connection to Coldplay and asked them to help out.

Parent Nadia Moule's husband, Glenn, is a friend of the bassist Guy Berryman and contacted him asking for help.

Mrs Moule jokingly said "some sweet-talking" was involved.

She actually met her husband-to-be at a Coldplay concert in 2009 as his band Howling Bells was supporting them in their Viva la Vida Tour.

She said: "We were absolutely amazed by the generosity of offering the guitar.

"Everyone worked very hard to raise all the finds and now to see the children in the classrooms, it has so much more space and in a little village - it means everything to us."

Head of school Alison Rawlings said the school had nationwide interest in the raffle but the guitar was won by a local fan and is still in the village.

She said: "When we were thinking about planning our raffle that was not the star prize that we were expecting.

"We had nationwide interested in our online raffle, people as far as Scotland put entries in."

She added she was thankful for everyone's help in raising the money.

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