MONTHS of hard work paid off as a number of schools across the county displayed their gardens at the Royal Horticultural Society Malvern Spring Festival.

Seven schools presented their entries for the School Gardens Challenge, which required students to create a garden to a theme of their choice.

Clifton-Upon-Teme Primary School, Abberley Hall School, Regency High School, Lickhill Primary School, Stanley Road Primary School, Tudor Grange Academy School and Cradley Primary School all took part in the challenge and were awarded with distinctions, the highest reward, or were highly commended or commended.

Clifton-Upon-Teme Primary School and Cradley Primary School both received distinctions, while Abberley Hall School and Regency High School were both highly commended.

The remaining schools were commended for their entries.

Regency High School was highly commended for its garden which had the theme Aroman. It was based on the Roman Legend of Caractacus, a British chieftain who was captured by the Romans on British Camp.

It was created by the school's garden club, called Rosebuds, and the project was led by teaching assistant Sarah Rudge.

Janet Gibbons, deputy headteacher of Regency High School, said: "The high commendation was well deserved, everyone put a lot of hard work into this."

Pershore College won silver for its trade stand.

Ken Nottage, CEO of Three Counties Agricultural Society, said: "Our School Gardens are always one of my favourite areas of the Festival. Each year the children really excel themselves, their creativity, dedication and enthusiasm is astounding and the skills that they learn embrace all aspects of the curriculum and expose them to the many different careers available in the horticultural industries.

"This year we have our best set of results yet with four distinctions, four highly commended and three commended, everyone should be very proud of themselves."