Two schools in Cheshire have been celebrating the involvement of their pupils in charity fundraising and school building upgrade schemes.

At Hinderton School in Ellesmere Port, pupils, friends and family turned out to a fundraising day to help boost the amount raised by a seven-strong team of runners who are due to compete in the London Marathon.

The funds are to be put towards a new ball pool for the school’s autistic pupils – and headteacher Liam Dowling let pupils throw wet sponges at him in order to help the effort.

Meanwhile, at Helsby High School, an estimated £9,000 per year is being raised in a very different way, as the school has just installed the largest solar panel system in the Cheshire West and Chester Council jurisdiction.

The £9,000 will be produced through government feed-in tariffs that help to reward those who use green energy, and add to the £3,000 in saved electricity costs that the school expects to achieve each year.

Helsby High School has now appointed student ‘environmental champions’ to monitor the performance of the system and work out ways to involve it in lesson plans.

While the two schemes are starkly different from one another, they show how pupils at schools in Cheshire are closely involved in the running of their educational establishments, and how they are helping to boost the economic prosperity of the region as well.