The humble apple was celebrated in every conceivable way by the children and families of Marlborough School.

Centre stage was given to tasting apples, where thanks to the very kind donations, the children had the opportunity to munch their way through over 25 different varieties of apples which included numerous Cornish varieties with names like Cornish Gyllyflower, Manaccan Primrose and Snells’s Glass Apple.

There was stiff competition in the apple pie bake-off, making the job of deciding a winner very hard for the school’s head Richard Gambier and head chef Ruth Clarke.

Mr Gambier, who will be retiring at Christmas, said: “Apple Day is a date on the calendar the children look forward to every year, where the celebration of the apple is paramount. The event is run by parent volunteers and really feels like the school community pulling together.

"All the money raised is used to help us extend the children’s experience of learning outdoors.”

The winning entry was from Suki, aged nine, who created a wonderful bouquet of apple pastries. Many children also took part in the largest apple competition, with the larges from Mia in year 1 measuring over 13cm in diameter.

Many children dived head long into the apple bobbing, fully dunking themselves to try and catch the elusive apples, whilst others crushed apples and used their muscle power to press apples to make fresh apple juice.

The free afternoon of activities also provided a longest peel competition, mucky dip, conker threading, apple craft, apple shy, toffee apples and apple cake eating.

A huge thank you goes out to all the families of Marlborough School for all their support, but also to Trelissick Garden, Sainsburys, Tesco, Westcountry Fruit Sales, Colin Hawke and Natasha Collings-Costello, who all donated apples.