TWO schools are celebrating after receiving coveted national eTwinning accolades.

Steeton Primary and Eastburn Junior and Infant picked-up the prizes at the 12th annual British Council eTwinning UK conference in Nottingham.

Eleven projects across the country won awards and eight were highly commended, in various categories.

Steeton Primary scooped the honours in the 'use of ICT for communication' section.

The recognition was for its Christmas Connections 2016 project, staged in collaboration with Eastburn and 20 schools across Europe.

Christmas cards and information about festive traditions and dishes were exchanged, there was a collaborative logo design and video calls were made between many of the schools.

And Eastburn Junior and Infant School was highly commended in the awards for its Wojtek the Soldier Bear scheme.

The initiative, run with a school in south-west Poland, was based around the book, Wojtek the Bear: Polish War Hero.

It tells the true story of a brown bear adopted by soldiers in the Polish army during the Second World War.

Diana Linford, a teacher at both schools and manager of the projects, said: "We are delighted to have won these British Council awards.

"Pupils have loved working with our European partner schools.

"The projects give our children a real audience for their work and greatly increase their motivation and sense of satisfaction in what they do."

Mrs Linford also works as a British Council schools ambassador in Yorkshire and Humberside, leading free workshops about using eTwinning in both primary and secondary schools.

She can be contacted via Steeton Primary.