A PRIMARY school near Moreton has received a coveted award for the way it beings outer space into its teaching.

Longborough CE School has been awarded the European Space Education Resource Office's Space Education Quality Mark.

The award is given to schools that use topics to do with space exploration and the universe to make its science and maths teaching more interesting and accessible to its students.

It comes after six of the school's pupils and science teacher Fran Regan visited a schools conference in Portsmouth organised by the UK Space Agency, where they met the UK's astronaut Tim Peake, veteran of the International Space Station.

Dr Regan said: "It was really awesome to meet Tim, and to display a poster at the conference showing the children's work about space.

"The children really enjoyed the opportunity to attend the conference and see how it all works."

Head Tracy Hampshire said: "Getting the quality mark is a real accolade and a tribute to the work of all the staff here at the school."