BOOKWORMS from a Droitwich school visited County Hall as part of the Worcestershire Awesomest Book award ceremony.

The youngsters from Westacre Middle School in Droitwich enjoyed the trip to the Worcestershire County Council chamber as a reward for being successful with reading.

The children spent time at school judging and shortlisting books, then reading the final shortlisted books before encouraging their peers to vote for their favourite.

They saw 'The Great Chocoplot' by Chris Callaghan receive the accolade for 2017 and were inspired by a speech by famous author Mark Lowery.

The author then spent time chatting to the children as well as signing copies of his book.

The dozen children then took part in a quiz competition about books, where they were confronted by a range of tricky questions about many different children's books.

Despite fierce competition from dozens of schools across the county, the Westacre pupils were announced as overall winners of the event and were given gold medals to reward their efforts and success.

Paul Barber, assistant headteacher, said: "As a school, we are aware of the importance of children both enjoying and making progress in their reading and continually encourage children to read as much as they can.

"So for our pupils to receive this award, we are exceptionally proud!

"A massive thank you and congratulations to our school librarian Anna Phillips for helping to organise this event and to our pupil librarians for creating such a buzz around school about books and for their efforts during this exciting day out."

Mrs Phillips said: "Seeing children across school so excited about books is always a great pleasure, but the excitement created by our librarians about this event has been particularly special.

"All of the children were amazing on the day and were rightly proud of their achievement."

The event took place on Tuesday, March 7.