PUPILS at St Katharine's Primary School in Savernake Forest, close to Marlborough, will be able to carry over what they learned about bridge building to other subjects in the National Curriculum.

The 59-pupil junior school had a visit from Cambridge-based Architectural Workshops last week at the request of headteacher Donni Blackwell.

Mrs Blackwell wanted the children to see how information learned in maths class could be transferred over into design and technology and also how it influenced the building of things they witnessed in real life.

She said: "It started in the morning with the youngest children making simple structures and ending up with bird houses.

"In the afternoon the older children were shown how to build bridges using dowling and elastic bands.

"The workshops used numbers, shapes, geometrical solids, angles and symmetry. The children all enjoyed it immensely.

"It was great to see how the children, some of whom have attention difficulties, concentrated so hard on the task. They all had to work as a team and much of what they did on the day will stay with them, providing a starting block for things to design themselves."

Mrs Blackwell added: "The children learned that there is much to understand about stresses and strains on the materials and how maths can help us learn how to make buildings, especially bridges, safer."