PUPILS who created a wildlife garden have secured a third top national conservation award.

Terrington Hall School has been awarded Natural England Big Wildlife Garden scheme’s highest accolade, its Green Award.

The scheme promotes the creation of small nature reserves around the country to encourage species such as butterflies and bees, native plants and animals to flourish where their populations are in steep decline.

During the past year, Terrington’s Eco-Schools committee and science club have further developed the school’s wildlife garden by introducing large amounts of frogspawn to the newly-developed wildlife pond.

They have also cultivated butterfly food plants – buddleia, scaboius, mint, lavender, lunaria and Hesperus – and collected data for a nationwide survey of butterflies.

The Natural England award comes hard on the heels of winning the Woodland Trust Gold Award which promotes the care of native woodlands and their role in wildlife conservation and biodiversity, while the Ecoschools Green flag has been flying at the school for two years.

The school’s head of science, Sam Watson, said: “The latest award is a terrific achievement for the pupils and, I believe, makes us the only school in the country to simultaneously hold these three national conservation-related awards.”