Pupils at a Suffolk primary school have been creating colourful creatures and designing exciting sets in collaboration with a new children’s TV show.

East Anglian Daily Times: Pupils from Melton Primary School with some of their creations, which could be used on TV next year Picture: SAM DAVIDSONPupils from Melton Primary School with some of their creations, which could be used on TV next year Picture: SAM DAVIDSON (Image: SAM DAVIDSON)

In a worldwide first, students at Melton Primary School worked with the team from Night Zookeeper, a new animated TV show that will air on Sky early in 2019.

They drew pictures of wild creatures from their imagination and also constructed landscapes and buildings for the show to take place in. Each one of these pictures will be looked at by producers of the show who will then decide which to include in their exciting new series.

Sam Davidson, who ran the session for Night Zookeeper, said: “Finding new and exciting ways of encouraging and nurturing creativity in the classroom can sometimes be a challenge and we hope Night Zookeeper will provide teachers fresh ideas to stimulate younger children.

“The fact that Sky is providing children with a real audience for their work will, no doubt, have a huge impact of the literacy skills of children across the UK.

“The pupils here at Melton Primary School have created a rich and diverse selection of potential characters and I can’t wait to see what other children around the country are inspired to write, draw and create.”

Melton Primary was one of the first schools to take part in these activities as Sky travel across the country working with thousands of children on the creation of each programme.

It is the first time this type of project has been attempted on such a large scale and Sky are hoping to use as many of the children’s characters as possible.

Mike Burgess, Year 6 teacher, said: “Sam brought a flurry of exciting learning stimuli and the children were raring to get started on the creative tasks for the TV show.

“We are very keen to see what else Night Zookeeper has to offer to help our pupils learn.”

There will be 10 episodes of Night Zookeeper, which is best know for its award-winning digital platform which encourages literacy and writing among children aged seven and over.

It is used by thousands of schools not only in the UK, but across the world and inspires children to invent their own magical animals and the write stories about them.