STUDENTS of a Bispham school are getting into focus with the very latest in state-of-the-art photographic technology -- thanks to The Citizen.

Beacon Hill High School, Warbreck Hill Road, has received a Nikon Coolpix 775 digital camera worth £400 having been chosen by the editor from schools all over the Fylde coast.

The school will now take part in a local and national competition linked to National Poetry Day. Pupils are asked to take pictures illustrating the theme of Journeys.

Beacon Hill will then be asked to upload their images to the Nikon Fotoshare website where a winner will be picked by The Citizen editor Alec Stuttard.

As well as the winning photograph being published in newspaper, the winning student will also have the picture professionally mounted and will receive an "Official Nikon Photographer" certificate. He or she will then go forward into a national competition.

One national winner will also receive their very own complete imaging suite, including camera, computer, printer and all the necessary software.

Beacon Hill had already celebrated National Poetry Day by holding a poetry competition. Hundreds of pupils wrote poems with a "journeys" theme and the four winners chosen were year eight students Jamie Jessop and Ashley Walker, Sam Cooper in year nine and Jack Rose, year eleven.

Students also attached their poems to helium filled balloons and launched them into the sky above Blackpool.

Teacher Serena Molloy said: "To date the furthest any of the balloons have travelled has been to Darlington!"