Artwork by primary pupils, inspired by the plants and wildlife in Padnall Lake and the Marks Gate area, will adorn development site hoardings.

Children from Rose Lane Primary School took part in the Your Marks Gate art competition, which taught them about the area’s flora, fauna and wider history and heritage.

The competition, run by Barking and Dagenham Council’s regeneration organisation Be First, took place over a month and included all year groups across the school.

Rose Lane assistant deputy headteacher Lara Marsh said: “We launched the competition by dedicating a whole day to the study of the history of our local area and doing art workshops in connection with this.

“We were delighted with the take up from our students and, as a result of the enthusiasm about the launch day, we have introduced extra local history and geography study into our curriculum.

“At Rose Lane, we are passionate about the creative arts and teach much of our wider curriculum through this medium, so the competition sat beautifully within this.

“It’s wonderful that our pupils have been able to use the creative arts to get in touch with their local cultural identity and be proud of their community.”

Eleven pupils were presented prizes for their winning entries by councillors Sade Bright and Simon Perry last week.

Up to three winners were chosen from each key stage.

Be First is working with Barking organisation Studio 3 Arts and artist Elaine Tribley to incorporate all of the entries into a final digital artwork to be displayed on the hoardings for the Padnall Lake development site.

This aims to give the children and school a sense of pride and achievement for the impressive artworks created for the competition.

Be First community engagement coordinator Sadia Ur-Rehman said: “It’s been wonderful working with Rose Lane Primary School and its community on this competition.

“We had such fantastic entries to the competition; our judges had a challenging time whittling it down to the winners.

"Well done to everyone involved."

Visit https://yourcall.befirst.london/your-marks-gate to see all the winning entries.