A SCHOOL with only 94 pupils carried out a charity effort that proved to be the best in the country.

Pupils at St Mary's CE Primary School, Bolton-on-Swale, near Richmond, took part in the Fones4Schools recycling campaign. They showed they had a real talent for it, collecting 863 mobile phones, making their school the top performing primary in the country.

Richmondshire MP William Hague, the former Tory party leader, called in to personally congratulate the pupils and present the school with its prizes.

It was awarded £1,200 for the phones, £350 for being top of the region and another £500 for being top primary school in the country, a total of £2,050.

The money will go towards extending the playground and buying outdoor equipment.

The school was also awarded points for the number of phones which will allow them to buy another £1,700 worth of electrical goods including CD players, digital cameras and televisions.

"It's a fantastic achievement - almost nine mobile phones per pupil, making them the top performing school in the country," said Mr Hague

"It's an excellent scheme and the children have enjoyed it very much. It means all these phones will now be recycled and the school benefits from £3,700 worth of cash and equipment."

Parent Sue Doshi, who organised the project, said: "A friend of mine asked me if I had heard of the campaign and when I got talking to everyone I was surprised how many people said they had a couple of old phones in drawers at home.

"We set a target of 200 but then one of the mums who is in the Army brought in 300 and that gave us a good chance of being top school. After that, the letters went out, posters went up and I even went door-to-door.

"I thought the chance of a little school like ours being top in the country for anything was pretty slim and seeing the children's faces today has made all the hard work worthwhile."

Andrea Offord, chairman of the governors, said: "This allows us to get all those extras that there normally isn't the funding to buy. It's been a brilliant achievement."

The Fones4Schools campaign hopes to collect more than 300,000 phones this school year which will either be sent to developing nations or recycled into their component parts, removing toxic waste from landfill sites.