CHILDREN at a Bury primary school are set to embark on a voyage of discovery by growing seeds that have been into space.

Pupils at East Ward Community Primary School are preparing to become space biologists as part of Rocket Science, an educational project launched by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and the UK Space Agency.

The school will be one of 10,000 that will receive a packet of 100 seeds that were flown to the International Space Station (ISS) in September and will have spent several months in microgravity, before returning to Earth in March.

The seeds will then be grown alongside alongside others that haven’t been to space, while the school's Eco Team measure the difference and send their results to be analysed by experts.

Headteacher David Waites said: "This is something we are really looking forward to next year. We have about eight pupils on our Eco Team and they do a great job of looking after our nature garden, growing vegetables and keeping the school tidy by going on litter picks."

The out-of-this-world project is intended to get children thinking about how we could preserve human life on another planet in the future, what astronauts need to survive long-term missions in space, and the difficulties surrounding growing fresh food in challenging climates.

Teacher Chris Oliver, the Eco Team co-ordinator, said: "We are very excited to be taking part in Rocket Science. This experiment is a fantastic way of teaching our children to think more scientifically and share their findings with the whole school community."

Rocket Science has been developed by the UK Space Agency to celebrate British astronaut Tim Peake’s Principia mission to the ISS and inspire young people to look into careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects..

Applications to take part in Rocket Science are still open and will close in March next year or until all packs have been allocated. Schools and educational groups can apply at rhs.org.uk/schoolgardening