Pupils at Burley Middle School are putting the finishing touches to a world-wide computer project - with a little help from their friends around the globe.

The pupils, with students at Goonellabah Public School, New South Wales, Australia, and at Riverside Elementary, Georgia, USA, have joined forces on the world wide web to design a website for the AT&T Virtual Classroom Contest.

Burley Middle, which won the competition in 1998, is one of only 12 schools in the UK chosen to take part and its project looks at how the students taking part live and work in their respective countries. Final judging takes place on April 1 and the winners get the chance to meet their international helpers at an award ceremony in Hong Kong.

Teacher David Womersley, who is responsible for the project at Burley, said: "The children are always amazed by how much they have in common with their team-mates, despite them living so many miles apart." To view the school's work to date, visit www.att.virtualclassroom.org/vc99/vc 35/

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