SOUTH Walney Junior School was one of the schools which took part in a kite festival on Walney in 1994.

The event, involving all schools on Walney, was in danger of being grounded after organisers discovered a helicopter fly-past was planned for the same day.

Blackpool-based West Coast Kite Club applied for a licence for the festival on Biggar Bank on behalf of organiser Val Holden.

WORKSHOP: Lee, ten, and Leigh, eight, practise their maths with a game of bingo at a mathematics workshop at South Walney Junior School in 1994

WORKSHOP: Lee, ten, and Leigh, eight, practise their maths with a game of bingo at a mathematics workshop at South Walney Junior School in 1994

The Civil Aviation Authority told them two Royal Navy helicopters would be flying over Walney the same day.

But Mrs Holden said: “Mike Stewart from Blackpool told me we were lucky as they managed to negotiate a limit of 300 feet for the kites so we could still go ahead.”

A maths fortnight at South Walney Junior School in 1994 aimed to bring the subject alive for the students.

The idea was to relate the subject to aspects of everyday life.

Each year had a different task to perform.

Year six pupils worked out quantities and the selling prices of home-made biscuits.

DICE: South Walney Junior School pupil Kate, nine, throws the dice in a game held as part of a mathematics workshop in 1994

DICE: South Walney Junior School pupil Kate, nine, throws the dice in a game held as part of a mathematics workshop in 1994

Year five went shopping for the ingredients at Barrow’s Tesco store and Walney Co-Op. The ingredients were used by year four students to make the biscuits. Year three was planning to set up shop and sell the biscuits to the children in the school.

Year six also had a talk from Mrs Metcalfe of Barclays Bank and visited the bank and Furness Building Society to see how maths was used and how important it was.

Year four would cost out a residential visit to Coniston.

YOUNGSTERS: From left: David, Kate, Sally and Lyndsay, all aged nine, playing a dice game as part of a mathematics workshop in 1994

YOUNGSTERS: From left: David, Kate, Sally and Lyndsay, all aged nine, playing a dice game as part of a mathematics workshop in 1994

Two maths experts visited the school. Joan Peatfield, of Charlotte Mason College in Ambleside, and John Pearson, deputy head of Abbotsmead Junior School in Barrow, worked alongside children and staff in a mathematics workshop.

Headteacher John Heap said: "We feel that all too often mathematics loses some of its force because the children cannot always relate it to their everyday lives.

"Equally, their motivation to learn may be increased if they can see that good jobs can be acquired by people with good mathematical skills."