NURSERY school children have been putting their newly acquired house building skills to the test in the classroom.

Youngsters from Trimdon Village Infant School were given a tour of a new housing estate by Alexander Developments, of Fishburn.

During the tour of The Wyndings estate in their home village, the children were told about how houses were built.

The 24 four-years-olds, who were accompanied by parents and teachers, donned hard hats and boiler suits for the tour.

Teacher Avril Lidster said: "I though it was great from the children's point of view because we were shown around a house that was nearly ready.

"The foreman showed us all the things that go into building a house, the wiring, the pipes and the wood that's needed.

"At the end the children knew exactly what went into the house, we went into all of the rooms and we were told about the safety aspects and why we have to be careful."

She said: "With us being a community school it's nice to go into the real world and show the children exactly what goes on in their village."

This is the fourth time the school's children have visited a site, at the invitation of Alexander Developments.

The trip was particularly useful this time as the theme for the current term is houses and homes.

Mrs Lidster said: "When we got back the children were building bungalows, semi-detached and detached houses.

"We've been using malleable materials to build houses with and in the role-playing area we've had Bob the Builder building different things."