CHILDREN from a Sedgefield school spent a day at London Zoo after winning a national competition to build sculptures out of unwanted Yellow Pages telephone directories.

Hardwick Primary School was one of six in the country to win a prize in the Yellow Woods Challenge National Awards.

The school won a digital camcorder after its creation, called Wallace and Gromit, was rated the second best sculpture in the UK.

It was constructed from Yellow Pages that had been collected for recycling. The directories were reused several times as children took it in turns to build 20 sculptures.

Ten of the school's pupils travelled with five adults to London Zoo to collect their award from campaign sponsor Yellow Pages.

Headteacher Gill Coulson said: "The day went really well. The feedback from it was tremendous. The children loved making the sculptures. We were asked just to make one, but we only had so many Yellow Pages and lots of children wanted to be involved, so we had some making a sculpture, photographed it and then made another."

The pupils who travelled to London were: Allistair Rowland, Calum Piercy, Georgina Tinkler, Robyn Kinnersley, Sophie Bean, Matthew Cant, Luke Walton, Katie Johnston, Hannah Rowbotham and Ben Bradford.

The adults who attended were: Sarah Guest, Anne Burns, John Wiper, Wendy Nadin and Mark Cant.