Six schools across Norfolk and Suffolk have won a share of £10,000 of gardening gear after collecting more than half a million coupons.

Back in January, we asked parents to collect coupons to help primary schools start growing their own food with our inaugural Plant to Plate scheme.

The scheme, sponsored by PlantGrow, saw the EDP and Norwich Evening News work with Enjoy Gardening More to give primary schools across the region a chance to share in thousands of pounds worth of equipment.

It is hoped the prize will help schools create gardens which teach pupils how food is grown, as well as encourage outdoor learning.

Coupons were printed in our newspapers from January 18 and the deadline for the end of the campaign was postponed from March to September 30 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In total, in Norfolk, 167 schools collected 377,761 tokens between them while in Suffolk, 67 schools gathered 178,605 tokens.

All schools will receive a gardening pack worth £130 full of equipment after each collecting at least 1,000 tokens.

Each pack will contain all essentials needed to kick-start a gardening programme, including strawberry runners, pumpkin seeds and recipe ideas.

Six winning schools have also been awarded £1,000 each after collecting the highest number of coupons per pupils that attend there.

In Norfolk, they were The Earthsea School in Honingham, which collected 5,141 coupons, Chapel Green School in Old Buckenham with 8,658 coupons and Walsingham Primary School with 2,576 coupons.

In Suffolk, the three winning schools were Orford Primary School, in Woodbridge, Finborough School, in Stowmarket and Stutton Primary School, near Ipswich.

Dylan Yates, headteacher at Chapel Green School, said: “We are a small school and we are incredibly thankful for the support we have received to win this prize.

“We are privileged to have a kitchen garden area which was created when we moved to our purpose built school in 2018, and we are looking forward to receiving professional advice from an expert and the gardening equipment to turn the garden into an amazing useable space for all our pupils.”