YOUNGSTERS with an eye for a picture have won a national competition to meet one of their TV heroes.

Eight pupils from Grove Primary School in Consett won the Give Us A Break contest organised by the Youth Hostels Association, to find the best young photographers in the country.

The children took centre stage with kids' TV presenter Dave Benson Phillips after scooping first prize.

They travelled to High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, where they saw Dave star as Buttons in Cinderella at the Wycombe Swan Theatre, then met him on stage after the show.

Afterwards, they chatted to Dave, who hosts the children's game show, Get Your Own Back, and were presented with £1,000 from Give Us A Break towards the cost of the school's next youth hostel break.

Headteacher Liz Hume said the school was delighted to have won.

"We were very surprised," she said. "We have gone to youth hostels for years and the number of pupils who go increases each year.

"They like to go up on the hills and to enjoy the freedom of the mountains, but they also like being together as a group in the hostel."

Phillip Marshall, aged ten, said: "I really enjoyed meeting Dave. I like him and I think he's a brilliant actor."

The competition saw the YHA distribute disposable cameras to primary schools and asked them to record their visits to youth hostels.

The pupils at Grove Primary were selected from hundreds of entrants, for their photos and written accounts of their trip to Borrowdale Youth Hostel in the Lake District.