Students and staff at West Hatch High School put their creative culinary skills to the test for the annual Great West Hatch Bake Off.

‘Show Stopper’ cakes of all shapes and sizes were entered for the contest with the top student and staff member from each of the school's six Houses going through to the Grand Final in the New Year.

Faced with the task of sampling each of the dozens of entries were this year's judges, Deputy Catering Manager Janice Anderson and Catering Assistant Debbie Knowles.

As the winner of the 2015 West Hatch High School Bake Off Debbie was aware of just what it takes to win.

She said: “All entrants have to plan in advance and come up with something really original which looks and tastes good.”

The six winning students to go through to the Grand Final are Louise Bruce, Jessica Reynolds, Gabrielle Kettleborough, Talia Black, Ben Aviram and Sushanthan Chandramohan.

The staff members joining them are Guy Blain, Jenny Peters, Amanda Hume, Robyn Turtle, Rob Tester and Coralie Reid.

Head of House - and competition organiser - Guy Blain said: "This year the creativity has been amazing. We had everything from a Game of Thrones cake to Alice in Wonderland. The attention to detail has been incredible."

The school also ran a social media poll on its main Twitter feed @WestHatchHigh1 with followers invited to vote for their favourite student and staff entry.

The Final will see the six teams of one student and one staff member having to make two dishes having had no knowledge of the recipes until the day.