YOUNGSTERS with an eye for a good picture have won a national competition to meet a television presenter.

Eight pupils from Grove Primary School, Consett, won a contest organised by the Youth Hostels Association (YHA) to find the best young photographers in the country.

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

They chatted with Mr Benson Phillips, who hosts the children's gameshow Get Your Own Back, and were presented with £1,000 towards the cost of the school's next youth hostel break.

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

She said: "We were very surprised. 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, ten, said: "I really enjoyed meeting Dave. I like him and I think he is a brilliant actor."

For the competition, the YHA distributed disposable cameras to primary schools and asked them to record their visits to youth hostels.

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