A CLASS full of adventure-seekers have had an early Christmas present from the team at Treetop Nets, thanks to their winning entry to the Brockhole-based attraction’s Leaf Art competition.

The autumn contest, which has now been running for three years, required children to create a picture made entirely of leaves to win a trip to Treetop Nets for their whole class.

Burton Morewood CofE Primary Academy & Nursery in Burton-in-Kendal was declared the winner, with the Treetop Trek team’s resident artist and judge Dan Short admitting he was “blown away” by the artwork.

Dan was impressed by the attention to detail which went into carefully arranging the leaves into the shape of a tree, fox, squirrel and robin, heaping further praise on the team for remaining undeterred by the rain and braving the elements.

Year 5 class teacher Jill Summers, said: “This competition was a great chance for the class to take their art lesson outdoors and was very much about them taking ownership of the whole project. With only a photo of each animal, it was down to the children and the natural environment to create their masterpiece. The children were superb, showing great resilience on a very wet and cold November day!

“Watching their joy, care and teamwork during their creative process was very special to see and you can only imagine their excitement when they received the news that they had won! They can’t wait to go!”

Treetop Trek Managing Director Mike Turner said: “We received some really amazing entries from right across the county and were delighted to see schools embrace our core value of spending time outdoors whatever the weather. It just goes to show that so much fun can be had all year round and we love how this competition really ignited local children’s imaginations, resulting in the creation of something truly amazing, not to mention 100% natural!”

The school will also receive a tree sapling to plant in their school grounds as permanent memento.