Pupils at Northwood primary school in Cowes, Isle of Wight, have won an allotment makeover including design and build, plants and maintenance for a year from the Potato Council.

They scooped the national honour after producing 5.4kg of the rocket variety of spud. The Grow Your Own Potatoes challenge aims to educate children on the process of growing. Schools have to use the free seed potatoes and the grow bags provided, but there are no restrictions on the type of soil, compost or additional nutrients.

The potatoes could not be planted until March 2, 2010 and had to be harvested by June 22. The outstanding school has won a number of awards for its garden. It has achieved the highest level in the Royal Horticultural Society’s campaign for school gardening and has an eco-schools green flag.

In 2007, Ofsted remarked on the use of the garden to grow fruit and vegetables to sell or cook in the school kitchen. hw.