The health of Branscombe Primary School was labelled ‘outstanding’ by the NHS and honoured at a ceremony at county hall.

As part of the Healthy Schools Plus programme, teachers at almost 200 schools in Devon have been given the opportunity to target which areas of health education best meets the needs of children and their families at their particular school.

Over the last two years NHS Devon gave each school �2,000 to run a creative health initiative based on one of four areas, and only 29 were considered for the top award, one of which was Branscombe.

Their Headteacher Katie Gray said: “We were delighted to attend the celebration at county hall yesterday for schools achieving outstanding healthy schools plus status.

“The staff, particularly class teacher Mrs Angela Crawford and the children had worked really hard on our healthy school plus projects and it was lovely to be rewarded in such a special way.”

Based on their own research, schools chose to focus their efforts on either preventing teenage pregnancy, tackling drug and alcohol misuse, maintaining a healthy weight and promoting physical activity, or improving emotional health and wellbeing, which Branscombe chose.

NHS Devon held a special celebration event for those schools whose work was identified as ‘outstanding’, and Dr Virginia Pearson, NHS Devon’s director of public health, congratulated the schools on their success.

She said: “Any initiative which supports the physical and emotional wellbeing of young people and tackles health inequalities should be applauded and the improvements will not only have an enormous benefit to the child but also to the whole school community.

“This programme has given schools the chance to be creative in their choice of health interventions and we have had positive feedback from this, from parents and teachers alike.”

Katie went with Mrs Crawford and two pupils, Josie and Isy to pick up their award, who enjoyed the cookery demonstration at county hall, and say they will now proudly display their posters around the Branscombe Primary in honour of their achievement.