A secondary school is among five in London to have been awarded £10,000 each by Sadiq Khan to help them accelerate student-led environmental projects.

Following his return from the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow earlier this week, the Mayor of London announced the winners of the Climate Kick-Start Prize at an event at the Barbican this morning.

Pinner High School was named as a recipient along with Forest Gate Community School in Newham, Francis Barber Referral Unit in Wandsworth, Hammersmith Academy, and Riverside Bridge School in Barking and Dagenham.

Sixth Form geography students taught by head of geography Mr. Smith wanted to improve traffic flow around Pinner High School.

Mr Smith explained “If we can get more students on bikes and out of their cars it improves the air quality around the school and reduces congestion, which makes the journey to school safer.

"We are delighted to have been awarded the Climate Kick-Start Prize to help us with this.”

A-level geographer Alex Stanisci-Brown said: “We all know what we need to do to address climate change so rather than making pledges for the next 20 years I am delighted to be making real changes about what happens in my school right now.

"I’d like to thank Mr Smith for providing this opportunity, and the Mayor of London for trusting young people to make good decisions.”

Headteacher Chris Woolf commented: “It was a real privilege to have a Pinner High School student led project featured at the Climate Kick-Start Prizegiving. The Sixth Form students are our Trailblazers, and they continue to live up to the name. I am very proud of them, and all our students.”

Ahead of the event, Sadiq Khan said the initiative is about "engaging young people to help us make London one of the greenest and cleanest global cities".

Mr Khan said: "In London, we’re taking bold action to tackle the twin dangers of air pollution and the climate crisis. As part of this, I’m pleased to announce the Climate Kick-Start prize winners, who will be able to use the prize money to not only deliver a range of innovative projects to take vital environmental action in their schools, but to inspire other young Londoners to get involved in climate action."

In addition to announcing the winners of the Climate Kick-Start Prize, Mr Khan also announced a new £1.5 million partnership between City Hall, the Department for Education and Thames Water to bolster the climate resilience of 100 schools in London.

Analysis from City Hall published earlier this year found that up to a fifth of London’s schools are susceptible to flooding.

The new fund will prioritise those schools most at risk of flooding and will contribute towards things such as improving drainage to prevent surface water flooding and making improvements to water efficiency.