Pupils at a primary school were amazed when a pumpkin they planted in their playground grew bigger than some of them.

Children at St Edmund’s primary school, in Hertford Road, Edmonton, planted seeds in their school garden just before the start of the summer holidays and expected little to come of it.

To their amazement, they were welcomed back to the school by a massive pumpkin that had grown throughout the summer.

The enormous squash measured one-and-a-half metres in diameter. Science co-ordinator Kathryn McCarthy said: “We planted the seedling in June and looked after it carefully for six weeks but then we all went away on holiday and had to leave it to take care of itself.

“Imagine our surprise when we came back last week to find this monster.”

Fellow teacher Yvonne Pearson told the Enfield Independent that this is one of the most successful plantings the school has seen.

She said: “Usually the birds would get to the seeds before the summer is out but we are delighted that the pumpkin has grown to such a size.

“It has not exactly been a wet summer so we are surprised by the pumpkin. It’s even bigger than some children.”

The school intends to keep it growing until Halloween where they will carve it and turn it into a jack-o-lantern.