A GROUP of youngsters have been highly praised for raising road safety awareness.

Four teenagers from Sharples School were runners-up in a national competition organised by the road group Brake.

Craig McKee, aged 15; Mubarak Dawood, aged 16; Sameer Ali, aged 16 and Kirit Patel, aged 16, developed a website and ran a poster competition for their school's Year Seven pupils.

They won £500 for their school which will be used to fund road safety teaching.

Head of history Lee Savage -- who is also the school's pupil co-ordinator -- said: "I'm extremely proud of them. They were competing not only against other schools but colleges and universities.

"They showed great resourcefulness and talent."

The website, thinkb4u.co.uk, is packed with road safety advice and it caught the judges' eye.

Mr Savage said the four pupils had a talent for information technology and put their skills to good use. "The children were very much up for a challenge," he added.