PRIMARY school children are looking to bridge the generation gap with the aid of a £10,000 grant.

Children from three primary schools in Shildon are teaming up with Sunnydale Comprehensive in the town to help elderly people come to grips with new technology.

Pupils from Timothy Hackworth, Thornhill and St John's C of E Aided primary schools have successfully bid for a £10,000 grant from Barclay's New Futures Fund to assist them with the project.

The funding will help the schools design a simple leaflet that will give pensioners step by step instructions on how to access computers and the Internet.

It will also pay for software from the Digital Excellence Award Scheme and set up a summer computer club for the schools.

Noreen Youll, co-ordinator of full service schooling for Shildon said: "This will mean that each individual child from all of the schools will have their own computer accounts set up and will be able to work through the different stages of the software getting awards as they go on.

"The project has an intergenerational theme and the children will be able to be able to develop their personal and social skills by meeting with the elderly to talk to them and see what they want to know about computers.

"They will then go away and design the leaflet themselves with the help of Dr John Ingram and Kay Hanson of Digital Edge Technology who have designed the software and who will be taking the summer camps.'