YEAR nine pupils from Cullingworth's Parkside School gained an early insight into the world of academic research.

They were invited to take part in the Researchers in the Spotlight day at the University of Leeds.

A Parkside spokesman said: "Our researcher was Ben Pickering, who is a research student in the Faculty for Earth and Environmental Sciences.

"As well as ourselves, a number of schools were taking part in this event, which involved school students meeting phd research post graduates.

"The process involved our pupils interviewing a particular post graduate about their research thesis.

"Our students then had to give feedback and create a Power Point presentation, about the researcher and their work.

"They then delivered this to an audience of university lecturers, phd researchers, university under graduates and the other schools' students.

"Parkside were judged to have given the best presentation of all the schools that attended in the region."

The Parkside pupils who took part included: Josh Schofield, Evan Jones, Aizak Andrews, Logan Brenan, Zaynab Butt and Mia Ellis.