A SCHOOL for youngsters with severe learning difficulties has been awarded more than £2,000 in National Lottery cash.

The Dales School, at Morton-on-Swale, near Northallerton, has received £2,140 from the Awards for All scheme to run a drama project. The new initiative is an interactive programme for the pupils and is designed to be accessible to people with special needs. It uses a variety of techniques as therapeutic tools to increase the self-esteem and self-confidence of those taking part.

BARD NIGHT: Seats for the forthcoming visit to Northallerton by the Royal Shakespeare Company are selling fast. They will be staging seven performances of two plays, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Coriolanus, between February 4 and 8, at Hambleton Leisure Centre. For tickets, priced £20, call (01609) 777070.

SMOKIN' SPITFIRES: Eight seasoned musicians, all veterans of the North East music scene, make up The Smokin' Spitfires and they are performing in North Yorkshire. The band play at The Lion Inn, Blakey Ridge, on Thursday, November 21, at 8pm. Tickets cost £2.50 and are available by calling (01751) 417320.

CHORAL EVENT: The Mowbray Singers are celebrating their tenth anniversary by performing two choral works in St Oswald's Church, Sowerby, on Sunday, November 24. The concert, comprising of Faure's Requiem and Schubert's Mass in G, will start at 7.30pm and tickets are £5. The singers are joined by local soloists Claire Strafford, from Kilburn, Matheson Dowdy, from Northallerton, and David Howard, from York.

AUTUMN SHOW: Bedale Amateur Dramatic Society is performing Life Goes On, a play by Adrian Hodges. Brian Simpson is producing the engaging comedy that can be seen in Bedale High School, from Thursday to Saturday, November 21 to 23, at 7.30pm.

MEDIUM VISITS: Clairvoyant Stephen Holbrook, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, is visiting Hambleton Community Centre, in Northallerton, on Thursday, November 21. The doors open at 7pm and tickets, costing £7, are available on (01924) 898688.

CRAFT FAIR: The village hall at Wass, near Coxwold, will be hosting a craft fair tomorrow, from 10am to 4pm. The event is in aid of the St John of God Hospital, at Scorton.