A team from Girvan Academy have been unveiled as the winners of an award designed to make their schools more environmentally friendly.

The winners of the 2017 Footprint Challenge were announced at a special ceremony at County Buildings in Ayr.

Now in its third year, the challenge celebrates and rewards the work of South Ayrshire secondary schools, while focusing on driving down ecological footprints, reducing carbon emissions and saving money.

The projects submitted for 2017 included building a greenhouse with plastic bottles, planting trees, little picking and promoting Fairtrade products.

Girvan Academy created a greenhouse made of plastic bottles and recycled materials, and also took part in Earth Hour to demonstrate how making little changes in power use can make a big difference to energy consumption.

Belmont Academy took the silver award, while Queen Margaret Academy won bronze.

South Ayrshire Provost, Helen Moonie, said she'd been impressed by range of entries, "I'd like to congratulate Girvan Academy on winning Gold this year but that doesn't take away from the wide-range of ingenious entries we received from across South Ayrshire.

"As global debate continues on how to combat climate change, it's clear that understanding our environment and helping to use our natural resources as wisely as possible is the world's number one issue.

"By taking the issue seriously now we're sending out a clear message that climate change matters, and I'd like to congratulate everyone who took part for making a real difference in their schools and communities."

Third year pupil Rachel MacKinnon from the winning team said taking part had been a great experience: "I'm really proud of the number of activities we have been involved in this year."