WAS your school one of the very many taking part in our Newspapers in Education local history project this week, looking at East Lancashire from the Stone Age to the Space Age?

Did you look in your copies of our newspaper throughout the week to enter the history linked competitions and reporting opportunities for any reader aged 16 and under?

Monday's NIE page invited budding historians and journalists to interview older friends and relations to collect first hand recollections of life in the past for possible publication.

Send your reports of any length in by Friday December 3, in time to get into print at the start of the new century.

On Tuesday we tested your knowledge of local history in a wordsquare with 37 answers to find using the special supplement written by Ron Freethy and also his article on almshouses, published on Wednesday.

Publishers Dorling Kindersley have offered superb books and software as prizes for the first four correct answers to this competition.

Wordsquare prizes for youngsters include copies of the books "Fantastic Millennium Facts," price £9.99, giving a unique insight into events that have shaped the world and "Children of Britain Just Like Me," also priced at £9.99, produced in association with UNICEF and showing a snap shot of our time through the eyes of real children. Copies of their "Millennium 2000" scrapbook pack at £4.99 and the "Millennium 2000" data file at £5.99 complete the set. In addition, DK are offering schools of the four winners copies of their CD Rom "The Twentieth Century Day By Day," and the book "Children's History of the Twentieth Century," worth £20 each, so don't forget to get those entries in by October 15.

Thursday's NIE page asked you to become a history detective, to correctly solve our archive picture puzzle.

Entries to this competition should also reach us by Friday October 15 for the chance to win copies of the book "Images of East Lancashire" by LET writer Eric Leaver.

Teachers set a fine example for pupils

PUPILS and teachers in 32 schools throughout our area are delving into the past, using our NIE local history pack "East Lancashire, from the Stone Age to the Space Age."

Students at Park High School, Colne, taking part in the project, are using material researched and written by one of their own teachers.

Les Hardy, head of history at the school, was one of three teachers who spent time on short placements with our newspaper to produce a set of worksheets linked to our local history supplement. The other two teachers, Lesley Riley and Alan Parker, are from Rosehill Junior School in Burnley, and the placement was funded by the Teacher Placement Service at East Lancs Education Business Partnerships.

The resulting pack of over 40 photocopiable worksheets for pupils in KS2 and KS3 is now available to any school within our circulation area, along with a set of special local history supplements, a week's delivery of our newspaper and a free book.

The minimum pack of 25 can be ordered, at only £48, from our NIE co-ordinator, Rita Shaw, tel 01254 678678, ext 255.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.