SCIENCE lessons are out of this world at a Bournemouth school as students take part in a space-related project.

All 290 pupils at The Park School are involved in the Royal Horticultural Society initiative involving seeds which have been to the International Space Station.

The school is one of 8,000 to be given the seeds, alongside another batch which have not been to space. The challenge is to grow the seeds over 30 days to see if there is any difference.

Teacher Robert Castle is leading the project at the Queens Park South Drive school, where every pupil has their own seed.

He said: “We were given 400 seeds, 200 of which had been to space, in red and blue packets. We don’t know which ones are which so we are growing them to see if we can see the difference.”

The aptly-chosen seeds are Rocket and the project will come to an end just before the school’s half term break.

“So far they are doing very well but they are all about the same size” said Mr Castle. “We’ll have to wait and see what happens.”

Schools across the UK have been taking part in extra science experiments to coincide with British astronaut Tim Peake’s time at the International Space Station.

Educators hope young people will be inspired by his mission and that it will encourage people to study Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects.