From David Hutchings, Exeter 382594, May 17, 2007

CHILDREN at Brampford Speke Church of England Primary School will be launching their new wormery tomorrow (Fri) with a special worm tea.

More than 300 worms are being introduced to their new home and will live on a diet of peelings and other waste from the school kitchen and leftovers from the children's snacks.

The worms will convert this into compost which will be used to improve the soil in the school's garden.

To celebrate the new wormery, the children and their parents will have a special worm tea where buns and cakes in the shape of worms will be served and there will be a competition to create a worm around the playground made out of coins.

Headteacher Stephen Powley said: "We recently celebrated National Composting Week.

"As part of this we are launching our new school wormery which we hope will help the children understand the art of composting."

The event follows a recent breakfast when parents and children dressed up in French style to raise money for some new French dictionaries for the school.

A delicious French breakfast was organised by the Friends of Brampford Speke School and raised nearly £90 for school funds.

Mr Powley said: "French has been part of our curriculum for the last year and events like this are a fantastic way of helping the children to speak the language and to understand more about different cultures.

"We were amazed at how many children responded to the challenge of ordering their breakfast in French rather than go hungry."

The village school is five miles north of Exeter and has 58 pupils.

NOTE TO NEWS EDS: The worm tea will take place at 3.30pm on Friday (May 18) and there will be an opportunity for photographs of children with the real worms.

For further information contact Karen May on 01392 841448 or 07766 727668.