PUPILS at St James Primary School, Elstead, had a blast when they launched their very own rockets.

They each made and launched water-powered rockets and a class rocket, which was powered with an explosive rocket motor.

It was part of the school’s STEM week focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Year five and six teacher and the school’s science lead, Campbell McArthur, said: “At St James we believe that all our children should have opportunities to practice and develop their learning and skills within these areas.

“For a whole week every class at St James investigated, designed, built and tested rockets.

“At the same time the children wrote reports about space and astronauts, undertook maths investigations about rocket launches and trajectories, created art and design pieces about space and even made space pudding!”

The launching of the rockets marked the end of the school’s rocket science week and “everyone agreed that the rocket built and launched by year four was the best of an amazing collection because of its almost perfect take off and beautiful nose first landing.”

In the past, the students have also built racing cars and marble runs.

Mr McArthur added: “With the skills shown by the children at St James we can be certain that the UK will continue to be a world leader in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”