PUPILS from 21 schools decorated Slough town centre with their gardening efforts as part of a wheelbarrow competition. 

Slough BID hosted its first floral wheelbarrow competition which were displayed in Slough town centre from June 13 to 18.

23 wheelbarrows from 21 schools were on display, which “animated the town square with a rainbow of colours, scents and textures”.

According to Slough BID, the children were especially excited by the experience, which gave them a chance to be creative and work as a team to design the wheelbarrow displays.

The creative wheelbarrows were judged by Cllr Amjad Abassi Mayor of Slough, Bruce Hicks who is senior parks improvements officer for SBC and Miles Watson-Smyth, director of Windowflowers Limited.

The judges said they were “delighted” to see how many budding horticulturists there are in Slough.

Montem Academy came first place in the Most Colourful category.

The Most Fragrant award went to Penn Wood Primary and Nursery School.

Colnbrook Church of England Primary School won the Most Tactile category for their wheelbarrow.

In the school's newsletter, Colnbrook CofE Primary celebrated the win: "This is fantastic news and a huge ‘well done’ must go to all of gardening club including Mrs Levesley and Mrs Parhar for all their hard work. Congratulations!"

The People's Choice award went to St Ethelbert's Catholic Primary School.

The Best in Show award also went to St Ethelbert's Catholic Primary School and Little Down School won the Judge's Commendation award.

Posting on its website newsletter, the deputy headteacher at St Ethelbert's praised the hard work: "We won the People’s Choice Award in the Slough Bid ‘Garden in a Wheelbarrow’ competition for all primary schools in Slough. Huge congratulations to Mrs Rogala and her gardening club! We were very worthy winners."

A spokesperson from Slough BID said the feedback has been "so complimentary of the school’s involvement and creativity of the children" in making a "delightful" display for the town square.

"The wheelbarrows received so much wonderful, positive attention from all generations of Slough: from students who attend the respective schools, to secondary school children proudly comparing displays of their former schools to parents and grandparents, it was a joy to watch the excitement", the spokesperson added.

Slough BID said it hopes to bring this event back to the high street next year with all Slough Borough Schools participating.