YOUNGSTERS at a Darlington school are staging a Nativity play with a difference.

Heathfield Infant School pupils have chosen The Grumpy Sheep as their Christmas play for this year.

All 160 of the school's children, aged from four to seven, have been involved in the production.

It is a traditional Nativity story, but centered around a grumpy sheep who is not only cross, but lazy as well.

The grumpy sheep has totally the wrong idea about the baby Jesus, but by the end of the play she sees the error of her ways when she reaches the stable in Bethlehem.

She even learns to smile and is never grumpy again.

Paige Mounsey and Sarah Copland, both six, share the role of the grumpy sheep in the school's production, which also features six new songs.

The nativity was performed in front of parents on Tuesday and yesterday.

On Monday the children will be performing at St Herbert's Church, off Yarm Road, in front of residents of the Cottage Nursing Home