A group of Battersea youngsters have won a national competition for a film they made to support a local community centre.

Children from Thomas's School wrote, presented and edited a DVD about the Katherine Low Centre in Battersea High Street, which runs a pensioners' lunch club, Sure Start nursery and youth project.

Their film beat 170 entries from schools across the UK in the Make IT Happen competition. The Government-run contest recognised primary schools which used technology to make a difference to their local communities.

The young moviemakers were invited to Parliament, where the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin, announced them as winners and presented them with a cheque for £2,500.

This week the Battersea High Street school said it would be giving the money to Katherine Low.

Staff, children and parents at Thomas's have developed a close relationship with the centre over a number of years.

In 2004 Wandsworth Council removed funding for the centre's lunch club, which provides hot meals twice a week and activities such as theatre trips for elderly people in Battersea.

Thomas's took on the task of keeping the club going and has raised £3,000 a year from raffles and Christmas fairs to fund it.

"Without the money they raise we would have closed," said Sarah Rackham, community development worker at Katherine Low. "All the pensioners live alone and are immobile. The lunch club is their weekly point of human contact."

Children from Thomas's also regularly visit the centre, to help out at the nursery or perform songs and plays for the pensioners.

Ms Rackham said: "The pensioners always say the money means a lot but the fact the kids come in and spend time with them means even more. It means life has got a bit more interest."

This summer 23 children from Thomas's made a DVD to raise awareness of the work done at Katherine Low and encourage potential supporters.

Christopher Smith, head of technology at Thomas's, said: "They have done film-making before in the classroom, but to do it somewhere that really matters made them fantastically proud. By the time we sat down to edit it was very clear they were making a direct contribution in the community. They realised it's only by people doing that type of thing that facilities like the Katherine Low exist."

As well as winning the national final, Thomas's was also awarded £1,000 for coming first in the London regional final.

Mr Smith said the money would be spent on new audio equipment so the children could learn to make radio programmes and podcasts.

He said: "It's a great privilege to have this attention. We will continue to raise funds for Katherine Low."