A group of students who gave up their lunchtimes to grow and sell plants to raise funds have been given awards at their school’s prize-giving evening.

Nine students from Shirebrook Academy were each handed a Community Service Award at the annual Celebration Of Success event.

They run the school’s plant sale stall, planting seeds and nurturing the plants in the garden of the academy’s Pine Cone Centre.

They also take orders, answer questions about the plants and handle the money, which totals around £800 a year and goes towards buying equipment for the centre’s horticulture work.

Five of the students, Toby Harrison, Arron Hubbard, Jack Mather, Liam Jones and Conner Fairhurst, were honoured in the Key Stage Three section of the evening, which recognised the achievements of students in Years 7 to 9.

Cody Gascoyne, Dylan Vincent, Bradley Bromley and Nathan Hubbard also picked up a Community Service Award for the Key Stage Four section, covering Years 10 and 11.

The school handed out 116 individual awards in total to students across all five years, including prizes for music, modern languages, English and maths.

It also rewarded students who helped the school claim a county title in indoor rowing, while Chloe Stray received the Governors Award, Ben Madeley was presented with the Principal’s Award and Trafford Kirby picked up the ACET Award for “exemplifying the attitudes and values of the academy.”

Mark Cottingham, principal, said: “I am proud of every one of our 807 students every day but it’s wonderful to be able to reward those who do something really special for themselves or for the life of the school.

“The Grow Team are an excellent example of students who not only give something back to the school, but who develop their personal, interpersonal and academic skills at the same time, whether by being able to answer questions about the plants or by taking orders and dealing with money.

“They are a shining example of the calibre of student we have at the academy.”

Pictured, from left, are Shirebrook Academy students Bradley Bromley, Cody Gascoyne, Conner Fairhurst and Jack Mather, who were awarded a Community Service Award.