A SCHOOL in Caldicot won £6,000 after picking up a top UK award for green schools.

Castle Park Primary School was named the regional and national Young People’s Trust for the Environment TOTAL Green School award winner in recognition of its project about Madagascar.

Through the project the school’s schools learned about the nation’s forests and wildlife, while pupils raised £1,100 to help Gwent woman Christina Dodwell’s Dodwell Trust set up a school in the rainforests of the island country.

To pick up the award, sponsored by French oil firm TOTAL, 30 pupils were treated to a day out at London Zoo, where the school was given the prize £6,000, part of which will now be spent on a reading scheme at the school.

Sue Wilsher, teacher at Castle Park Primary, said: “The children are over the moon to have won the award and to have attended the national final in London – it was an unforgettable day.”

Peter Littlewood, director of YPTE, said: “They have become true experts and have put so much effort into their work about Madagascar.”