The wheelbarrow of organic cereal bars proved very popular, particularly with NAHT President, Clarissa Williams, who was keen to walk away with the whole lot.

Generation Green were also proud sponsors of the final night Gala Dinner, which saw over 500 school leaders let their hair down for at least one night.

Surveys are now taking place to plan for installations early next year when these schools will start generating renewable electricity of their own!

Donna Butler, the Eco Club Leader at Axminster Community Primary School has written in to tell us how they achieved their leaf target and won solar panels for their school. Below this is a full list of the winning schools. Secondary schools – keep going there are still 9 to be won!

Axminster Community Primary School

Axminster Community Primary School is based in East Devon with 212 pupils on roll. We started our Eco club in September 2007 and now have 16 children plus a committee of 12, which includes a local councillor, governors, a parent and representatives from all areas of our school staff who regularly give up their time to take part in environmental trips and activities.

Bradley Moore, 10, Eco Club member, "I have been to Eco council meetings with lots of important adults. It was scary at first but it’s been useful to tell other people about our work."

We joined Generation Green in June and began completing tasks. The club members completed the Energy Savers Report at home and we spoke about the site in assembly. We also put up the tree and added ‘leaves’ to the display as our total grew. In our mission to be green we had also organized the composting and recycling of all waste, spread our message through the curriculum and assemblies, cleared our school pond and visited the local recycling, composting and landfill site.

As our leaf total steadily rose we used the template letter on the website to write to all parents with updates and instructions of how to complete the Energy Savers Report, and sent letters to family and friends, the local paper and local employers also supported us. We even opened up our laptop suite after school one evening for parents who don’t have internet access at home.

Word amongst family and friends spread and before long we were in the top ten and had won solar panels.

Mathew Rattenbury, 10, "It’s so good it will help the environment and it will help our school to improve its carbon footprint and save the environment."

We are absolutely delighted to have won, winning the panels will make a big difference to our school. Not only as it is something we would find impossible to fund ourselves, but because the competition has involved the whole school and wider community in our environmental work.

We’ll be back to let you know how our solar panels work and how we make the most of Generation Green in the future!

Donna Butler
Eco club leader

Winning schools so far!*

Primary Schools:

• Priory School – Southend on Sea
• Cabrach School – Huntly
• Lledrod CP School – Aberystwyth
• Axminster Community Primary School – Axminster
• Solent Infant School – Portsmouth
• Owlswick School – Lewes
• Dean Gibson Catholic Primary School – Kendal
• Bowness-on-Solway Primary School – Carlisle
• West Chinnock Church of England Primary School – Crewkerne
• Sennen School – Penzance
• Toward Primary School – Dunoon

Secondary School:

• Wendover House School - Aylesbury
• Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School - Essex

*Installations are subject to successful LCBP grant application

All 10 Primary school prizes have now been won but there are still panels available for Secondary schools so if you haven't registered yet, there's no time to lose!

Congratulations to all those schools who have reached their leaf goal.

The volunteers ran one of two team challenges with the pupils; the construction and racing of hydrogen fuel cell cars – a fun way of learning about alternative energy sources, and an activity involving the measurement of the power used by specific equipment around the school and putting a plan in place to help reduce energy usage.

Mrs Starke from St Helens Juniors said "You can tell if a class really enjoyed an activity by the noise volume, and my class was really noisy! The lesson was really fun and the kids have learnt lots out of the activity."

The volunteers also really enjoyed taking part as it was a great opportunity for them to use their expertise to help pupils have a positive impact on the environment.

Jon Oliver, the British Gas Generation Green co-ordinator in Cardiff, said: "The sessions help the pupils see that small, everyday steps can have a significant effect on reducing their impact on the environment. By encouraging pupils we can help them to reduce their school’s carbon footprint."