YOUNGSTERS from Horwich will have the chance for a global chinwag thanks to a £25,000 video conferencing project.

Claypool Primary School in Salisbury Road will enjoy regular face-to-face contact with pupils from a school in Gauteng Province, near Pretoria in South Africa after winning the award in a competition run by British Telecom.

The school beat hundreds of applicants from all over the country to secure the award thanks to the hard work of deputy head Jeremy Atkinson.

Mr Atkinson travelled to South Africa with a group of teachers from Rivington and Blackrod High School last year to establish links with schools and will be returning in July with a team of technicians to help set-up the video conferencing equipment and computers in a high school and primary school.

The prize money will cover the cost of video equipment in Claypool, Lord Street Primary School and Rivington and Blackrod High School as well as the price of installing all the equipment in the two South African schools.

Other primary schools in Horwich and Blackrod will also be invited to make the most of the system which will include a website covering children's social concerns.

Pupils using the hi-tech means of communication will be exchanging views on personal, social and health issues and discussing problems such as bullying, stranger danger and bereavement, while older children will discuss the impact of AIDS.

Mr Atkinson said: "This is a really exciting project. I'm over the moon.

"The money from the BT award will mean that students will develop their own personal communication skills."