ALIENS landed in a school playground to help pupils to study a literacy topic.

The youngsters' imaginations were fired when they heard a crash and the lights dimmed as they gathered in the hall at Le Cateau Primary School, Catterick Garrison.

Teachers had arranged for a "spaceship" to crash- land in the courtyard and the children spent the rest of the day investigating the accident site.

Pupils wore high-visibility vests, masks and gloves and reported back on their findings. Some were "contaminated" and green spots appeared on their faces.

The exercise launched the final literacy writing topic of the summer term, which was aliens.

Year three teacher Claire Whitby said: "It is things like this that capture the imagination of the children and their written work has been great."