A borough school beat off competition from others across the country to pick up a grant of £5,000 in recognition of its efforts to achieve sustainability.

Hampton Hill Junior School, in St James's Avenue, is one of only 56 schools to win the grant, awarded by the National College for School Leadership (NCSL), after staff submitted details of current sustainable projects, how they have been led and how they propose to share their experiences with other schools.

The school has hosted a mini-recycling centre since 1995, recycling cardboard, paper, bottles, cans and books and all classrooms have recycling bins.

It is currently having solar panels and a wind turbine installed to supplement new high-efficiency gas boilers.

The school, which has forged strong links with Joyhama School in Nagano, Japan, and taken part in two-way visits was recognised for its high quality leadership.

It will use the money to form a network with other schools in the area to share good practice in sustainable thinking and assist NCSL with research into leading sustainability in schools in varying educational settings.

Toby Greany, NCSL's operational director of research and policy, said: "This commitment is great news and shows that the scale of the problem is recognised among school leaders, we look forward to them assisting us with our research.

"We remain dedicated to supporting heads to be sustainable and hope these grants go towards helping them achieving this."