NEWS from the past and present is pouring into a Rossendale classroom through our Super Story Search project.

Pupils in year 6 at Crawshawbooth County Primary School are gaining a fascinating insight into facts and features reported in up-to-date copies of our newspaper and comparing these with events from history, using software given by us.

Our scheme delivers daily copies of our newspaper into participating schools and pupils use these, along with the accompanying work book, to discover what is going on in their own community and to improve their reading skills.

"Pupils are very enthusiastic about using the newspaper," said teacher Paul Hawthornthwaite. "The project is especially useful during our Literacy Hour, enabling small groups of pupils to work in collaboration, discussing and evaluating news reports. And, of course, the books and software are a real bonus."

All schools taking part in the project are given packs of books and software to keep and review for our NIE column, and the Crawshawbooth school chose, along with books, Dorling Kindersley's superb CD rom 'History of the World.'

The Super Story Search material is suitable for pupils in KS2 to KS3. For more details please contact NIE co-ordinator Rita Shaw, telephone 01254 678678, ext 255, or fax 01254 680429.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.