A MONMOUTHSHIRE school was declared the UK's greenest school after it achieved the highest sustainability rating of any school in the country.

Rogiet Primary School was honoured at this year's BREEAM Awards as one of the 16 most successful UK sustainable buildings.

The school, built by Willmott Dixon, was awarded a record-breaking score of 78.18 percent and a rating of excellent.

This was awarded by BREEAM, the BRE Environmental Assessment Method, which is regarded worldwide as the measure of a building's environmental performance.

To gain an excellent rating, a development must earn most of the credits available for its performance in things such as energy, materials, waste, water, ecology, pollution, transport, management and health and wellbeing.

The school opened to its 210 pupils in November last year with more environmental features than any other school in the UK.

This included solar panels used to heat water for use in the bathrooms and kitchens, rainwater harvesting to save water being used to flush the toilets and a natural timber frame to maintain heat in the winter and keep it cooler in the summer.

The pupils got involved in creating some of the sustainable features including collecting old newspapers which they helped to place inside the walls for extra insulation.

Rogiet Primary School has now also been shortlisted for the sustainability award by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in Wales.