Singing robots, dancing UFOs and even a poetry-reciting octopus invaded the grounds of Noremarsh County Junior School, much to the delight of the Wootton Bassett parents and relatives.

The extraordinary spectacle also known as the school's carnival procession was the culmination of a week's worth of fixing, gluing, sewing and dress rehearsals in preparation for the grand performance on Friday.

Parents watched in glorious sunshine as eight groups of pupils each with its own theme paraded around the playground showing off their costumes. The eight themes, which were chosen by the children, were rain forests, under the sea, the Sixties, Hans Christian Andersen, insects, robots, space and China.

Headteacher Mary Backhouse said: "The children had spent all week preparing and we'd shown them videos of other carnivals to get ideas from. We were so lucky with the weather on the day and each group also did a little performance relevant to their theme which included poetry, dancing and singing."

The children then joined in singing the school's carnival anthem, which had been composed by deputy headteacher Sue Victory.

Mrs Backhouse thanked the school's parent teacher association, the Friends of Noremarsh School, for all its help in what was a wonderful week for the children.

"We had a lot of parents who came in to help with all the work and decorations and people were bringing all sorts of things in for the children to use. We're now going to hopefully have the large banner up on display as well as a book of pictures and maybe some of the costumes as well," said Mrs Backhouse.

Earlier Swindon Dance, which is the National Dance Agency for the South West, visited the school and taught the pupils dances which they performed on Friday.

Photographs appear in this week's Gazette & Herald