Topsham School has won a �500 prize thanks to its children’s gardening skills.

The school has been named as the English regional winner of the ‘Get Growing Challenge’, run by UK charity Global Action Plan.

The children’s award-winning efforts included helping to establish the local organic farm, and using recycled materials to create a salvage garden, encouraging vegetables and flowers to grow.

The children also created a plastic bottle greenhouse and built an African garden inspired by their link school in Uganda.

Teacher Justin Vernon said: “We decided to take on the Get Growing Challenge to help us embed sustainability into the school’s culture, and to further our links with the local community.

“It has been amazing to see how wonderfully the children have taken to it.”

Global Action Plan’s Trewin Restorick said: “Topsham School is showing us all how we can introduce growing produce within a school until it becomes an everyday aspect of a student’s school life.

“The school and its garden has become a food hub for the local community and, with rising food and fuel prices, it’s great that these pupils are providing local produce for local people.”