YEAR 9 pupils from Wiltshire schools have been taking part in a national project for gifted and talented youngsters.

Twenty state and independent schools, mostly from Wiltshire, but also from Dover, Uckfield, Newport and Germany, met this week at Bath University for a three-day conference on citizenship and the environment.

Each school chose a group of six of its most gifted and talented Year 9 students to take part and over the past year the groups have been working as a team with similar groups from schools across the UK.

The teams have researched and worked together electronically, via email and video conferencing, producing a presentation on a selected topic.

They met face-to-face for the first time at the conference, which ran from Monday to Wednesday.

This gave them the opportunity to put the finishing touches to their presentation before presenting it in front of other teams and a panel of judges drawn from Wessex Association of Chambers of Commerce and the West Wilts Learning Partnership.

The students also had the chance to take part in enrichment and intellectual activities at the university.

The project, supported by the Independent State Schools Partnership, is always seeking financial assistance and if any organisation is interested in backing the project, they can call Clarendon headteacher Colin Kay on (01225) 762686.