A Worcester primary school has been given an insight into careers in horticulture and healthcare after winning a coveted gardening competition.

St George’s Church of England Primary School won the Worcester Schools Gardening Competition at The Worcester Show earlier this year, with first prize being a trip to renowned horticulture centre Pershore College.

The prize was in recognition of St George’s school gardening project, which was carried out by their lunchtime gardening club and submitted for the competition which is run by the Worcester Allotments Forum.

Councillor Louis Stephen, Mayor of Worcester, presented the school with their prize in the Mayor’s Parlour.

Pershore College, which is part of WCG, has sponsored the gardening competition since 2019 and covered all travel costs for the school trip.

The college welcomed 30 year 6 pupils from the school, who were given a guided tour around the state-of-the-art facilities at Pershore.

They split into two groups and visited three different areas of the college. Josh Egan-Wyer, head of horticulture at Pershore College, introduced the children to the plants in the college’s collections house where exotic plants can thrive.

The collections house is environmentally controlled through a sophisticated electronic management system and the children learned about the different environments in which certain plants can grow.

Pupils were also given the chance to meet the range of animals which call the college home, including reptiles, rabbits and donkeys. They learned about how they are looked after and had the chance to feed some of the animals.

Finally, the children visited the recently opened care suite at the college which supports the development of students seeking careers in the health and social care sector.

Alice Lane, assistant headteacher and Year 6 class teacher at St George’s Church of England Primary School, said: “It was a great experience for the children. They all loved the trip and found it really interesting.

“We place a lot of importance at our school in showing children the different educational paths they can follow, it doesn’t have to be in a classroom with a pen and pad, and there are hands-on careers out there that they can pursue.

“We would like to thank Pershore College for welcoming us for the day and hope that we can work with the college again in the future.”

Josh Egan-Wyer, head of horticulture at Pershore College, said: “We would like to congratulate the school’s gardening club on winning the competition and we hope they enjoyed their visit to the college.

“The children from St George’s were incredibly engaged and interested in finding out about everything that we do here at Pershore College.

“We hope they gained some insights into potential careers and perhaps in a few years’ time we will be welcoming them back to the college as students.”