CHILDREN from a Wee County primary school recently enjoyed a visit to Edinburgh, thanks to generous funding.

The 10 children from the Law Class and Blairdenon Class at Alva PS, who are diagnosed with autism, were able to visit the National Museum of Scotland with small grant funding from Alloa Rotary Club.

The trip, during which the pupils learnt about ancient Egypt and were keen to see the many artefacts on display, proved invaluable to the children.

Lorraine Gribben, teacher, said: “Learning can be tricky for these young people and they make better progress when things are made real.

“In preparation the class had experimented with mummifying tomatoes.

“They also used Google Earth to compare their Clackmannanshire landscape with Egyptian terrain.”

A request for the funding came to the rotary club in April and the funds helped with transport while the children themselves also arranged bake sales and a sponsored walk to help pay for the adventure.

Lorraine told Alloa Rotary at the time: “Autism can be a barrier to learning but to experience.

“The children struggle to understand books or TV but to see, for example, mummies in real life would be amazing.

“I can picture the look on their faces, see their smiles and hear their laughter.

“The memories that this trip would create for the class would be priceless.

“We were grateful to Alloa Rotary for making the trip possible.”