A prestigious award has been handed to four students from an Egremont Academy.

West Lakes Academy Year 13 pupils Gemma Lewthwaite, Abigail Pullin, Joshua Hamand and Harry Richardson picked up a Social Impact prize at Sellafield's Excellence Awards.

They were presented with the certificate during a ceremony at Energus, Lillyhall.

The award follows on from innovative work the students completed during their engineering education scheme, which started last year and finished when they were ranked third in the northern section of the competition.

That scheme links student teams and their teacher with local companies, to work on real scientific, engineering and technological problems.

The subject of their project was ‘Solid Identification in Sludge’ and involved designing a system to work in the legacy ponds.

Sellafield legacy ponds engineer Marcus Coupe mentored the four students.

He said: "I was impressed by how confident they were to describe their project to the people that they met, and explain what they had done."

The students worked in their own time for over six months to complete the project including trips to Sellafield and a residential trip to Teesside University.

In a second trip to Teesside University, they were required to present to a panel of high profile industry experts, who in turn questioned the students about their designs.

During a review of the students' work, the panel said: "The presentation and Q&A showed that the team were working together positively to achieve a successful conclusion.

"We particularly liked the risk analysis of potential hazards; especially when the focus is the nuclear industry.

"We predict great careers ahead for all team members."