CAMPAIGNING youngsters who travelled to 10 Downing Street to demand change have won the support of Hollywood star Pamela Anderson.

The former Baywatch star has started following Devonshire Road School in Heaton on Twitter after reading about their work campaigning for animal rights.

Simon Hunt, year six teacher, said: "Pamela is a campaigner for animals — she is anti-fur.

"Born Free Foundation has been retweeting the work the class has been doing and I think she has picked it up from there."

Teachers more so than the children are impressed with their new follower.

This week a group of pupils travelled to London to present a petition to 10 Downing Street calling for animals to be banned from circuses.

Although they didn't get to meet Prime Minister David Cameron, they were able to hand in the petition — and found themselves being "papped" as crowds of tourists thought they were famous.

The trip to London was the culmination of a literacy project encouraging children to write in different styles, including poetry, formally and creatively — as well as develop their debating skills.

Mr Hunt said: “The pupils also developed their understanding of British values that people were allowed to have their own opinion and it may not be the same as theirs.”

He added: “The children started the campaign, they were presented with both sides of the argument.

“The children could not understand why adults can’t understand what they can and why nothing is being done.”

Mr Hunt said: “The children went from this classroom to 10 Downing Street. They know they can make a difference, it was empowering for them.

The campaign to end performing animals in circuses followed the previous year six’s work to end the captivity of Orca whales which took them to the European Parliament.

Mr Hunt and the pupils received a letter from the EU Parliament saying that it will conduct a “preliminary investigation” of the issues raised by their petition.

Zara Dillon, aged 11, said: “It was amazing to go to London — I was nervous and excited.

“I wanted to go because I feel so strongly about having animals in circuses banned.

“They are wild animals and should not be in circuses.”

The children who went down were drawn at random and shared their experiences with the whole class.

Ryley Dunn, aged 11, added: “The whole class has taken part in the campaign and it was important to tell them what we did.”

“It was a real privilege to go to 10 Downing Street to present our petition.”