CHILDREN and staff from a Kearsley school who won a trip to Disneyland, Paris described it as "a fabulous experience."

Kearsley West County Primary won the all-expenses paid trip in a national school meals competition last month.

Dorothy Lee, the head teacher of the Primrose Street school and one of four staff who accompanied the 16 children, said: "We had an absolutely wonderful time."

But she added that the group was heartbroken about the tragic deaths of St James's pupils in France.

Mrs Lee said: "We heard the news when we were travelling on the coach to London on Monday and it was a very sobering time."

The children - whose names were drawn from a hat - spent Monday evening in London. They strolled along the Thames to Tower Bridge and stayed overnight at the London School of Economics Halls of Residence.

The journey continued the next day on the Eurostar to Paris and Disneyland where the children went on five different rides.

The children who stayed behind in Kearsley dressed up in red, white and blue and enjoyed a "French day" at the school on Tuesday with French food and lessons, pavement painting artists and boules. On Wednesday they were put under the spell of magic and illusion shows.

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