STUDENTS at a school near Ilminster are getting green-fingered during outdoor lessons after the purchase of new renewable energy kits.

The new equipment, at Neroche Community Primary School in Broadway, has been purchased thanks to a £2,000 donation from the E.ON Energy Action Fund.

The new renewable energy education kits have been added to the school’s unique Forest School, which is used to educate pupils across each of its seven classes about the natural environment.

The school was keen to add equipment to help demonstrate to pupils how renewable sources of energy like the sun and wind can be harnessed to heat water and generate electricity.

Now, using the funding from E.ON, the school has been able to buy a set of wind turbine and solar thermal and photovoltaic educational kits.

Connel Boyle, headteacher at Neroche Community Primary School, said: “Our children are really curious about energy, particularly electricity conservation.

“These superb educational tools we have purchased with £2,000 awarded by E.ON are helping us to understand energy production and this is adding an important element to our environmental forest school curriculum.

“As a result, our children are becoming very efficient energy monitors.”

As well as investigating how the number of turbine blades and their angle affects the amount of electricity generated, the pupils are also using the solar equipment to experiment with different light conditions.

Suzanne Doxey, community relations manager at E.ON, said: “For a small school, the judges of the E.ON Energy Action Fund were impressed by Neroche’s ambition in wanting to build on the foundations of its forest school area and learn about renewable energy in such a hands-on way.

“It’s also heartening that this equipment and forest school area more generally will benefit the wider community, as local pre-schools and nurseries make visits to the school to take advantage of its facilities. I’d like to think that the fully kitted out forest school area will help inspire an audience of two-four year olds before they even start school.”

For more, visit eonenergy.com/community.