PUPILS at a North-East primary school have turned into junior Willy Wonkas by inventing their own chocolate creations.

The Year 6 children at High Coniscliffe CE Primary School, near Darlington, faced the challenge of designing, creating and marketing new brands of chocolate before presenting them to judges in a Dragons’ Den style competition.

The judges were led by Andy Raine, from Darlington sweet shop, Andy’s Candy Bar, along with the school’s executive principal Wendy Aitken and vice principal Kaye Boyce.

It was an extremely close call but the judges chose Alana Walker, Chloe Smith, Marshall Walker, and Matthew Barker as the winning team.

They came up with a chocolate bar called ‘Feel Good’ – described as “a yummy alternative to yucky medicine when unwell: packed with oozing honey, lemon zest and juice, and coated in smooth, white chocolate and caramel chunks”.

The winning team’s brand slogan was: “Bringing the summer sun to your winter cold!”

However, all the children were winners because Andy treated them all to one of his own tasty creations – a black and white lollipop called the “Darlington Dabber”.

The competition was all part of a current topic on South America and class teacher Naomi Potts said: “The children have worked extremely hard and have invented some fantastic new chocolate bars. Their confidence and passion when presenting in front of the ‘Dragons’ and their sheer belief in their products was just amazing to watch.”