PUPILS at a Suffolk school have been celebrating success in a competition run by the NHS.A cheque for £500 was presented to Martlesham Beacon Hill primary after pupils were declared Suffolk winners of the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Workforce Development Confederation's schools' healthcare careers challenge competition.

PUPILS at a Suffolk school have been celebrating success in a competition run by the NHS.

A cheque for £500 was presented to Martlesham Beacon Hill primary after pupils were declared Suffolk winners of the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Workforce Development Confederation's schools' healthcare careers challenge competition.

Jane Payling, NSCWDC finance and performance director, Phil Thirkettle NSCWDC board member, and Jo Burrows, Suffolk healthcare careers consultant, presented the cheque to headteacher Mr A Murray and class teacher Christine Hayward.

Ms Hayward said: "The children were absolutely thrilled with the news that they had won and found the competition itself very inspiring as they learned a lot, with some even thinking of pursuing careers in the NHS.

"They said it was one of the best personal social and health education lessons that we've done and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone else."

Almost 1,000 years five and six pupils at schools across the three counties took part in the competition, staged to increase children's awareness of healthcare careers and the healthcare sector, and to provide sustainable resources for teachers to support the delivery of National Curriculum learning objectives.

The pupils, aged nine to 11, were asked to read a story called Making Joe Better and then list the correct order Joe meets members of a healthcare team on his road to recovery.

The overall winner was Poringland primary school, near Norwich.