A TEAM of intrepid volunteers transformed brambles into a blooming garden at a Worcester school.

Young people on a 12-week self-development course, run by the Prince’s Trust through Worcester College of Technology, raised funds to carry out the work at St Mary’s Worcester.

The team of 15, made up of 16 to 25-year-olds who are not already in education, employment or training, carried out bag packs, held a raffle and took part in a triathlon to get the funding they needed. With help from St Mary’s pupils, they then turned their hands to rejuvenating an allotment space, creating a storytelling feature and installing a shelter and bamboo instruments in an existing play area.

Paul Stephens, Prince’s Trust team leader, said: “It was phenomenal – what the team achieved was incredible. They worked really hard and actually did some extras.

The whole experience has definitely built up their confidence.

“They all said at the end that they couldn’t believe what they had achieved.”

Andrea Passalacqua, head of sixth form at St Mary’s, said the revamp would boost the school for years to come.

“At St Mary’s, we place a great amount of importance on developing the individual, from their early years until the sixth form,” she said.

“Through the work of the Prince’s Trust, we now have three very distinct outdoor areas that will allow us to nurture our girls’ talents and skills in a natural environment.

“The story-telling area, the allotment and the forest school created and developed by the Prince’s Trust team with some help from our year 12 girls, will provide years of inspiration for so many children who pass through our doors.

“It will stir their imaginations and show each and every child that learning doesn’t just happen in the classroom.

“It is a life skill that happens all around us.”