A school honoured a student killed in a car crash during an awards ceremony.

A host of certificates and trophies were presented at West Hatch High School’s annual upper school awards evening in High Road, Chigwell, on Tuesday.

A special award was presented in memory of former student Mandeep Padda, known as Mandy, who died in a car accident, aged 20, on Epping New Road in February.

Her parents presented the first Mandy Padda Award for Creativity in Upper School Studies to Hannah Brandon.

Ms Padda's parents have also planted a Cherry tree and placed a memorial bench near the school’s Sixth Form block earlier in the year.

Among the awards was the Rotary award for business and enterprise, which was presented to Jack Ware.

Head of Business studies, Neil Cunningham, said Mr Ware was "very clear with what he wanted to achieve during his time in sixth form".

He added: “Jack showed a real interest in business studies both inside and outside the classroom his self motivation was evident to see and this helped drive the quality of Jack's work and enabled him to achieve a fantastic overall grade.

The special guest on the award evening was Paul Reynolds, of Loughton-based chartered accountants Haslers who recognised the best performing student in business studies, Arjun Chopra.

Headteacher Frances Howarth said she was proud of all her student’s achievements.

She said: “The upper school awards evening is an annual event which enables us to recognise all the tremendous hard work of many of our students across all aspects of school life."