PUPILS at a Darlington school are celebrating after their musical talents earned a £1,000 prize.

Children from Alderman Leach Primary School emerged victorious in a Christmas carol competition, staged as part of a spectacular festive show in the town's Market Square on Sunday which climaxed in the switching on of the town's Christmas lights.

Alderman Leach School, which had two teams in the contest, won with a carol called This Christmas Time. The school won £1,000 worth of musical instruments.

Bishopton and Redmarshall Primary School and Beaumont Hill School each won runners' up prizes of £250.

All of the finalists' carols were played on the breakfast show on Alpha Radio before the event.

Meanwhile, four youngsters saw their designs for festive illuminations made real and switched on in Blackwellgate. Megan McGuire, seven, of Mowden Infant School, and Springfield School pupils Chelsea Jenkinson, six, Lee Barnes and Lisa McCormick, both ten, were all winners in the Orange-sponsored competition to design Darlington's Christmas lights.