PUPILS at a Blackburn school narrowly missed out on winning £20,000 of electrical equipment.

The 15 year seven students in Blakewater College's Environmentally Friendly Group were shortlisted in the final of electrical retailer Comet's Green Gadget for the Future competition.

The competition challenged year seven pupils across the UK to come up with a gadget that uses renewable energy.

Blakewater youngsters' idea for window blinds which create solar power beat hundreds of other entries to the final five, but they were pipped at the post by Seaford Head Community College, East Sussex, with their concept of a wind-up "robo-hamster" which spins a wheel to generate enough electricity to power a toaster.

But PC Eileen Smithson, the Shadsworth Road school's on-site police officer who runs the Environmentally Friendly Group, said that she was extremely proud of how much the children had achieved regardless.