PUPILS at a primary school in Dovercourt are taking part in an out-of-this world project with the International Space Station.

Youngsters at Chase Lane Primary School are growing seeds that have been into orbit as part of an experimented backed by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and the UK Space Agency.

The young space biologists were given rocket seeds that were flown to the space station last September on the Soyuz 44S rocket before being returned to Earth.

Chase Lane is one of a number of schools to receive a packet of 100 seeds from space, which they will grow alongside seeds that have not been to space and measure the differences over seven weeks.

The children will not know which seed packet contains which seeds until all results have been collected by the RHS and analysed.

Teacher Nathan Kempster said: “The children all loved taking part in the experiment and were very excited because British astronaut Tim Peake is involved.

“They are growing rocket, which many of the children had not tried before, so I brought some in.

“Obviously it tastes peppery, so it sent some of them running for their water bottles. They were fascinated at how small the seeds are – I could hold all 100 in the palm of my hand.

“Now they have been planted, we’re all excited to find out the outcome of the experiment.”