There's still time to get your entries in for a special competition to name Wickford's new primary school.

Families have until Friday to send in their ideas for the title of the £1.4m school, set to open on the Wick estate in September.

Governors have asked readers of This Is Essex feeder paper The Echo for help in coming up with something original and imaginative.

Entries have already been flooding in.

Several people think it should be called the Adrian Rondeau School or the Adrian Primary after the owner of Adrian's record and video stores in Wickford High Street.

Maureen Connally, of Hill Avenue, Wickford, commended Mr Rondeau for his active role in the community and wrote: "All the younger generation relate to his name. Adrian is the young people's famous local figure."

Mrs Baylis, of Gladwyns, Basildon, suggested naming it the Middletown School because Wickford lies between Basildon and Billericay.

Another Wickford woman, Mrs Western, of Highcliffe Road, suggested Clifford Stroud Primary School after a captain who crashed his aircraft not far from the site of the new school.

And Mr Martin, of Wick Beech Avenue, Wickford, came up with the Thomas Henry Martin School - after his late father.

Thomas Martin lived at Grange Nursery, which used to be on the school land, from the early 1920s to the 1960s and maintained greenhouses, propagating houses and packing sheds.

Whoever comes up with the best name will have the honour of seeing it on the front of the new school and will also scoop themselves a £100 voucher, courtesy of competition sponsor Adrian Rondeau.

The name will have to be put to Essex County Council's education committee for approval before it can be formally adopted.

Competition entries should be sent to Samantha Misson, Evening Echo, Chester Hall Lane, Basildon, SS14 3BL, by Friday, January 8.

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