MANY pupils get to learn about the history of their community, but this term youngsters at Dilton Marsh Primary School have been looking to the bigger picture.

The children in Oak class have been taking a hands-on approach to studying sites like Stonehenge and making use of the school's new IT suite in the process.

The National Curriculum requires youngsters to study some local history, but class teacher Nina Stiddard was keen for her pupils to appreciate the county's early heritage.

On Monday, Oak class joined fellow pupils in Beech and Willow on a visit to Stonehenge and Avebury, where they even tried to calculate the weight of the stones.

The three-phase project has seen the Year 6 students build their own mini Neolithic roundhouses using clay and straw. Indeed plans are already under way to construct a life-size replica this summer.

Talan and Harry's team of four were the first to complete their roundhouse and took great pride in their achievement.

Harry said: "I enjoyed using the clay most. We got it on our clothes and stuck in each other's hair.

"They used to have fences around the outside and keep all their cattle and goats inside with a fire in the middle."

Talan said: "In those days if you needed a house you just went out and built one. We were going to put a little fire inside ours but only one of us could fit our fingers in."

The first stage of the project saw the pupils use Powerpoint software to create presentations depicting various aspects of Neolithic life, including tools and burials. The youngsters took pictures and information from the internet as well as using reference books.

Oak class pupil Amy said: "We had to design six slides, each about different subjects. It was quite hard to do."

From there the students drew up plans for their roundhouses before rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck into the creation phase.

Mrs Stiddard said the project was proving a big hit with the pupils and had helped them get a better grasp of the county's geography.

She said: "It's not something that we've done before. We've done a lot of work looking at other cultures so I thought it would be nice to go back in time and see what was happening in our area.

"We try to make things real for them. But the only problem was that there are very few books about Stonehenge for this age group.

"People come from far and wide to see Stonehenge, but others who live just 10 miles down the road have never been there before."