GREEN-fingered schoolchildren are celebrating after lifting a top national award.

Belhaven Hill School’s conservation club was presented with the Youth and Education Award, sponsored by Scottish Natural Heritage, at the fourth annual RSPB Nature of Scotland awards.

Nine awards were handed out in Edinburgh last Thursday night, with the school celebrating after their hard work in improving the local environment by building havens for native wildlife through a programme of educational conservation activities paid off.

Tom Rawson, the school’s head of conservation, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have won. We are especially delighted that our children have received the recognition for the hard work and inventive ideas that they so richly deserve.

“We are extremely grateful to the RSPB and Scottish Natural Heritage for the award and also to organisations such as the Woodland Trust, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Surfers Against Sewage and Alba Trees who have helped and guided us to make each project so successful.”

In the last two years, children aged seven to 13 have volunteered to build 85 bird boxes, clear six local beaches of marine litter and planted more than 2,200 trees in the community.

In addition, they have built a double-glazed bird hide from scratch and a tree nursery capable of producing 300 to 400 native trees from seed annually.

The club sees the integration of these activities with the school’s academic curriculum as a key means of delivering both an enriched learning environment and the importance of living a healthy and environmentally responsible lifestyle.

The Nature of Scotland Awards are designed to recognise and celebrate excellence, innovation and outstanding achievement in Scottish nature conservation. Springwatch presenter Iolo Williams was on hand to present the award and congratulated the school.

The Nature of Scotland Awards were attended by more than 200 industry professionals, community groups, politicians and conservationists.