A group of school leavers have had the chance to enjoy one last trip together before making the big step up to secondary school.

The coronavirus pandemic had initially limited the contact that years six pupils from Ireleth St Peter's Primary School could have with each other before graduating, but the schoolkids have now been given a chance to say a final farewell.

The pupils from the Askam primary school enjoyed a socially distanced walk together through Grisedale.

Headteacher Mrs Macfarlane said: “It went really well, we went with Fussell’s travel who we use for all of our trips.

“He was fantastic with the organisation and the safety measures - we always feel safe when we go with Paul, and particularly so at the moment.”

The group of five year six pupils and three adults were seated on a 35-seater coach to allow for social distancing.

She said: “We put out the opportunity to all year six children to come, and five of them decided to go.

“We just wanted to provide the opportunity of a final trip after they missed their residential in Eskdale.

“It’s such a shame and with everything that has gone on they have done so well. I just thought that it was really important to provide that opportunity for them to create those final last memories.

“I felt really passionate about organising that for the children.

“They had an absolutely brilliant day, lots of comments like ‘best day ever’, which is fantastic considering it was only a day trip but they just really enjoyed being out in the fresh air.

“They enjoyed the walk, it was quite a tough one up Carron Crag but they did fantastically well. We enjoyed a picnic and some homemade cookies - and we even enjoyed an icecream which was lovely.

“Lots of nice memories and lots of tired children at the end of it.”

Trip-goer Erin Morrison said: “It was really good. We went on the bus and when we came off we walked up a road and then we had a look at the map to see where we were gonna go.

“And then we set off on our walk and we went round the top of Carron Crag.

“The rocks were a little slippy but we got to the top. Everyone felt proud when they got to the top.

“We were all talking to each other because we haven’t seen each other in a while.”

Evan Kewley also enjoyed his trip, he said: “It was really fun because I didn’t see my friends for ages because of quarantine.

“We went to Carron Crag and had an icecream which was really nice. I got bubblegum.

“We talked about our memories because we’ll be leaving this year.

“I’m quite happy to be making new friends at secondary school, I’m going to UVHS.”