A SPACESHIP crash in the upper dale is under investigation by a group of primary school children.
Children have been told the crash happened on Sunday, January 13, after farmers in Forest-in-Teesdale reported hearing and seeing mysterious sounds and lights during the night.
Pupils at Forest of Teesdale Primary School discovered the wreckage on Monday morning.
Teacher Richard Carter said along with parts of the spaceship, children had also gathered up strange seeds, bits of equipment, parts of a map, weird rock samples, images of the solar system and beyond, and a strange message.
The children started their investigation by trying to decipher the message.
Alfie, a pupil at the school, said: “I thought it was Morse code but it didn’t really work because there were no dashes. So I thought it might be Braille.”
Once they had established the message it read: “Our Mission – go to the three planets closest to the sun.”
They also learned that similar crashes had happened near the primary schools in Rookhope and St John’s Chapel and pupils got in touch with them to find out they had other parts of the map. All three schools are collaborating to uncover the mysteries of the crashed spacecraft.
Mr Carter said the investigation formed part of the school’s term project with the initial part being called a “stunning start” , followed by a “marvellous middle” and a “fantastic finish” . Through the topic children will learn various parts of the curriculum.
He said: “The learning is led by them. There is a lot of science, history and a lot of geography.”
Children will also improve their English through creative writing and poetry.
Some of the pupils think the strange seeds they discovered might have been used for rocket fuel and plan to dissect them.
