LITTLE children from a nursery school in Poole learned about the work of an ice sculptor after they received a special visit.

Mark Gibb from In Ice Designs visited the kids at Stepping Stones Montessori in Penn Hill Avenue, to show them what he does as a job and created a dolphin sculpture in front of them.

As the process takes several hours to come together, from an ice block to the finished piece, the children, aged up to four years, continued to visit the sculpture to see the transformation, and learnt about where ice comes from.

Sally Law, nursery manager, said: “We strongly believe that we should provide real life experience to the children.

“In the 28 years that we have been running, we have never had anything like this before.

“We took a little block of ice into the nursery, so that the children could see it and touch it, and then we told them about how it melts and they got to ask Mark questions as well.

“Mark and Tracy from In Ice Designs have a daughter, Charlie, four, who comes to Stepping Stones, so we like to utilise the skills that the parents have, to help the children learn.”

Mark said: “I never make the same thing twice, even if it just means putting a little different twist on an idea, so everything is bespoke.

“I learnt about 10 years ago, when I was driving for an ice company and they asked me if I wanted the chance to learn how to make the pieces, so I took them up on it.”

Mark said that the dolphin ice sculpture would last around six to eight hours, before it becomes unrecognisable as it melts away. For details, go to inicedesigns.co.uk