A Harleston pupil won £500 for his school after winning an art contest to design his dream mini-beast mansion.

Diss Mercury: Bradley Cooper has won £500 for Harleston. Primary School in a design a nature garden competition.Bradley Cooper has won £500 for Harleston. Primary School in a design a nature garden competition. (Image: Archant norfolk)

Bradley Cooper entered the Giving Nature a Home competition run by JDP, a leading stockist of civil and drainage products for the building industry, which has a branch in Eye.

The task was for young people to produce a dream design for a mini-beast mansion that could be used by small animals, insects or creepy crawlies – for example spiders, butterflies, caterpillars, snails, ladybirds or even frogs, toads and hedgehogs.

Bradley's design was selected as the overall winner in the South East of England heat of the competition, meaning his drawing will now go on to compete in JDP's national competition next month - where he could win a further £1,000 for his school towards an environmental project.

As well as receiving the £500 school prize, the eight-year-old class-four pupil at Harleston Primary School was presented with £20 gift voucher.

Headteacher Roger Walsh said: 'The children were really engaged and enjoyed working on the topic very much. We are really proud of Bradley and his winning design.'

JDP regional manager Chris White said: 'Mini-beast mansions can provide a varied range of nesting and resting sites for insects and can really interest and help to engage children in nature.

'This is why we launched 'Giving Nature a Home' as a community initiative across our national network of branches.

'It's been wonderful to see the variety and creativity of the children using their pens, pencils, paints and even designing on the computer.

'We asked the children to think about the size and shape of their mansion, the material it might be built out of, its location, height and layers, the filling it will contain which varies according to insects, and importantly rain proofing.

'They all used their flair and imagination to get creative with the task, but when judging the entries, Bradley's design in particular stood out for their artistic originality.'

Has your child won a prize or award? Tell the Mercury by calling 01379 651153 or email dma.news@archant.co.uk