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Schools struggling to pay for everything from new equipment to school trips are being offered some extra financial help to fulfil their essential wish lists.

With headteachers facing a growing crisis of escalating costs, higher energy bills and rising inflation, everything from new books for pupils to extra-curricular opportunities could face being put on hold this year.

Online platform LetsLocalise wants to help staff, parents and PTAs find the cash, resources or expertise they need to get projects off the ground or buy items classrooms desperately need.

LetsLocalise is dedicated to helping state schools nationwide meet increasingly basic needs which school budgets may be struggling to cover the cost of.

Founded by Divya and Gaurav Garg and with Reebok founder Joe Foster as its chairman, Lets Localise has now launched a new campaign called #RaisingAMillion - with Joe giving his time, contacts and business skills to help children across the UK.

#RaisingAMillion is appealing for donations from individuals, communities, businesses, and even our readers, who are keen to get involved in helping schools where they live.

What's more - schools with projects and lists of equipment they desperately need and are fundraising for can use the LetsLocalise's website to create their own space to tell the public about the work they're doing and why they need extra help.

Joe Foster said: "While I came from a humble background and only started my formal education at 10 because schools weren’t operating as normal in Bolton due to the Second World War, I immediately valued my education - especially when I went to technical college at 13 to study engineering.

"This training was invaluable and enabled me and my brother to set up our own shoemaking factory when I was just 23 and set me on the path as a business owner and founder of Reebok.

"The pandemic has unleashed an unprecedented crisis and triggered the biggest learning emergency in current times. We know schools today are dealing with incredible challenges, from the pandemic to soaring costs. With LetsLocalise and my wife Julie, the #RaisingAMillion campaign will help give schools and one million children the resources they need to enhance their learning experience and transform their futures – just as I did."

Money raised from the #RaisingAMillion campaign will go direct to state schools on LetsLocalise.

Funds will be allocated to resources across five categories: school meals, literacy, STEM education, music and sports and so if you know of a project or plan for a school that fits this brief get your school to sign-up to the website as soon as possible.

Since it was founded in 2018, LetsLocalise has become a ‘digital village’ of schools, local communities and businesses all working towards a collective goal of providing students with better resources and opportunities, along with transparency on where donated money goes.

Big-name businesses are also working with the platform - to supply financial donations, match-funding or resources - including Legal & General, Cognizant, Verizon, the Ocado Group, L’Oreal and Three.

LetsLocalise founders Divya Garg and Gaurav Garg explained the motivation behind their project.

They said: "We’re seeing a growing crisis in state schools as headteachers and staff struggle to provide sufficient resources of even the most basic items due to real-term budget cuts and rocketing costs which is creating an influx in demand.

"Schools are already at risk of running a deficit with parts of their budget already overstretched - and the increase in energy costs means current budgets will struggle even further to cover this worrying, ever-rising expenditure. The obvious knock-on of a great share of budgets having to be spent on utilities, is that state schools - who are already considerably underfunded and overstretched - will now have even less budget available to spend on key educational resources.

“With a new government in place, this presents a great opportunity to put schools top of their agenda and to give schools the much urgent financial support they need to try and head off this growing crisis.

“Our mission is to continue to work with schools nationwide so that while every headteacher is trying to sleep at night and facing these unprecedented challenges, money from #RaisingAMillion will be trickling into their school’s bank account so they can buy the essential resources they’ve requested when they wake up.”

Anyone wishing to throw their support behind a project can donate as little as £1 through the #RaisingAMillion page on LetsLocalise while state schools can now sign-up and post their urgent requirements on the platform.

All school sign-ups will be verified and checked by LetsLocalise.