SWANAGE schoolchildren who won a national competition with their space science project have met British astronaut Tim Peake.

The youngsters, who previously took part in an innovative International Space Station project, won the chance to meet Tim after creating an animated film about their work.

British European Space Agency astronaut Tim spent six months living and working aboard the space station, as part of his Principia mission

Tim, who safely landed back on Earth in June, said: "Encouraging students to engage with my Principia mission was always something that I had hoped to do and I am thrilled at the range of different things young people have done to follow my mission."

Seven pupils from St Mark's Primary School met Tim at the Principia Schools Conference at Portsmouth Guildhall earlier this month.

A school spokesman explained: "Pupils were lucky enough to be able to shake hands with Tim Peake and to personally ask him their questions. These ranged from enquiring about his space walk to asking how his muscles got so big.

"The children had previously taken part in the Royal Horticultural Society’s Rocket Science Experiment which involved planting and closely monitoring 100 seeds that had spent time on the International Space Station, along with 100 that had stayed on Earth.

"They were inspired to create their prize winning short animation ‘The Rocket Seed Race’.

St Marks will continue to be involved with the Principa Space Education programme and its future research.

Conference day was packed with activities provided by The UK and European Space Agencies, and pupils had the opportunity to try out Raspberry Pi coding used on the International Space Station and to ride space exercise bikes.

Raspberry Pi coding is a system used in schools to teach pupils about basic computer science.

Jeremy Curtis, the UK Space Agency’s Head of Education and Skills, said: "We wanted to celebrate the achievements of young people across the whole country, to meet with them and to hear more about what they have done."