TEACHERS in Worcestershire schools have been praised by national bodies for their provision of sport and environmental studies.

The Director of Education at Worcestershire County Council's Local Education Directorate spoke at a variety of conferences and was told the county was "pre-eminent".

Projects at Bishopswood Environmental Centre near Stourport-on-Severn and the rising number of Sportsmark awards were just two of the things picked out during a week's whistlestop tour by Julien Kramer.

Sport England, the national funding body for sport praised the county for its different schemes within schools.

"Worcestershire is regarded well by Sport England," said Mr Kramer.

"We're pre-eminent in the Midlands for the thinking behind the activities.

"Quite a number of our schools have the Sportsmark and Sportsmark Gold awards."

Mr Kramer also met with the Council for Environmental Education, which included Baroness Ashton.

"They said some very kind things," said Mr Kramer.

"I was trying to show the audience what a well-run LEA can do to help schools and children do environmental things.

"I talked about the Earth balloon, which has been around schools, Bishopswood and the Forest school initiative where three and four-year-olds go into the woods and learn about cooking.

"I also told them about the recycling waste project which we took to the Three Counties Show," said Mr Kramer.

"We took six boxes of Worcestershire apples along and gave them out as a present from the county's teachers.

"It's nice to talk about what good teachers we have here and the things schoolchildren get up to.

"It's also nice for the county to be praised.

"Despite the fact there's no money people are working very hard."