CHILDREN in the infant department at Brunshaw County Primary School in Burnley wrote their own report of a school trip to Martin Mere bird sanctuary. This is their account of the visit:

WHEN we got to Martin Mere we saw lots of stones on the path. There was grass on the roof of the building to make the birds land there softly.

We went into a classroom and talked about swans, geese, ducks and bones. We could feel dead things. It felt strange to touch them. We looked at lots of different coloured ducks and their eggs.

We saw pink flamingos. They are pink because they eat special food. We fed the ducks and birds with grain. They tickled Jason's hand. Two geese and one swan chased Olivia for food. She was a bit scared.

One of the geese tried to get hold of Gareth's coat and another pecked our teacher Mrs Fergusson when it tried to get into her pocket. It was very funny. After dinner we played in a park. There was a climbing frame and tyre swings. It was brilliant fun. We all had a happy time on our school trip.

By JASON HORNER, HANNAH WHITLOW, ZOE MARSDEN, OLIVIA JACKSON, LAUREN DODGSON, JACK HOLDSWORTH

WHY not send us your own school news and views. Reports, articles or letters can be written by pupils, teachers, parents or governors. And don't forget that in addition to seeing your own words in print, the NIE column is included on our Internet web site, so information from your school goes around the world.

Schools' search paying dividends

TWO of the five schools currently using our Story Search reading scheme are featured this week. Meadowhead Junior School in Blackburn is using the material to extend a project linked to local industries, which they started earlier in the spring term with help from East Lancashire Education Business Partnership.

The English department at Walshaw High School for Girls in Burnley is involving all pupils in year 9 in our reading scheme. The project has become a firm favourite in the school, repeated every year.

English teacher at Walshaw, Paul Holmes, believes in using a wide range of reading material in lessons and feels that newspapers help to stimulate an interest in reading and writing and in the local community.

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