CHILDREN at a Crook school will soon be lending their favourite writer to the glamorous world of TV soap for a few weeks.

For Carina Rodney, writer-in-residence at Peases West Primary, Billy Row, has scooped the chance to work with the story department of Emmerdale in February.

Carina is funded by Creative Partnerships to work with children at the school to further develop their writing skills and give them the experience of working with a professional writer on a long term basis.

A Tyneside-based playwright who has had work broadcast on Radio 4, she has won the chance to work on Emmerdale thanks to the Newcastle writers' development agency New Writing North. Carina is one of only six people around the country who have been chosen to work on the three-week Emmerdale project.

"We'll be working with the story department to see how Emmerdale is put together and how the ideas are developed," said Carina, who has recently worked with 80 of the children on an African play based on a Zulu legend.

"It's a completely new direction for me, and I'm hoping it will be a way into TV work."

Carina will take a short break from her work at Peases West to work on the Emmerdale project, but her young pupils are following her progress with great interest.

"I went down to Emmerdale for the day to find out about everything we would be doing, and the children were fascinated,' she said.

"They come from a rural area, so they can relate to a lot of what goes on in the soap. And the main thing they wanted to know was - had I seen the Dingles' pigs?"

Creative Partnerships Director Katherine Pearson said: "The children have really enjoyed working with Carina.

"She is a very talented writer and her creativity and flair has engaged the youngsters in a most imaginative way."