A school has hit on the best ever reward for its hard working pupils - all 800 of them are off for a day at Lightwater Valley theme park.

The 806 pupils of Otley's Prince Henry's Grammar School plus a team of teachers are due to return to school with a bang in September with a day of thrills and spills at the specially opened Ripon theme park.

Set for September 6, the 11 to 16 year olds - who are happily paying £10 each for the school trip - will travel to Ripon in a convoy of 16 coaches.

And once there, they will have all the rides for themselves - as the park is opening its doors especially for them.

Amanda Dudley, the school's press officer, said it was a first for the school."We've taken smaller groups before but this is the first time we've taken this many kids.

"They've all had to pay £10 for the day, but they've all been willing to pay," she said.

She said every pupil at the school, apart from next year's sixth formers, would be going on the trip as a reward for their hard work during the year.

It would also mean a replacement outing for this year's Year 8, 12 to 13- year-olds, whose residential trip to Coniston was cancelled because of the foot and mouth epidemic.

Amanda said: "They are incredibly excited about it and are looking forward to having the place to themselves. They were really shocked when they first found out they were going."

And it seems the teachers are looking forward to it as much as the children.

"Someone suggested we hold a staff meeting in one of the cafes while the kids were on the rides, but we decided against that. We want to go on the rides too.

"It'll be brilliant for the kids to see us enjoying ourselves, it'll mean them seeing us in a different light."

A spokeswoman for Lightwater Valley said: "It is unusual for a whole school to come. We've had groups of one to two hundred, but this is quite unusual.

"The park will have been closed on the day and we will be opening it specially for the school."