A popular travel writer and presenter returned to his former school at the weekend for an annual awards ceremony.

Prizes were given to students at Wymondham College by alumnus and BBC Coast presenter Nicholas Crane, who studied at the college between 1967 and 1972.

Students were recognised for their academic and extra-curricular achievements, community work and contributions to college life at the weekend.

Guest of honour Mr Crane paid tribute to the education that he had received at the college and the passion and professionalism of the teachers who had fired his imagination for geography and history. During his speech he told students that they were the standard bearers of their generation.

Principal Melvyn Roffe lauded progress by pledging that the college would continue to do the job it had always done.

'I would like to pay tribute to all my staff colleagues whose skill and hard work over this last year has been as outstanding as ever and whose support I know I can rely on over the remaining months of my time at Wymondham College,' he said. 'The very word 'college' implies a group of people living together for a common purpose. And although, on the whole, it is the teachers who teach and the students who learn at Wymondham College, things are not that straightforward – because we expect students not to be merely passive consumers of a school experience but to make a significant contribution to the success of a joint enterprise.

'Speaking for myself, I can tell you that I am constantly learning things from our students.'