EXCITEMENT is mounting in an east Durham school as pupils prepare to make their debut as film stars.

It was earlier this year that the pupils from Shotton Primary School were chosen for a movie project shot on their own doorstep.

The venture was all the idea of the Turning the Tide Project, which has spent £10m cleaning up east Durham's ravaged coastline.

To help mark its ambitious programme Turning the Tide decided to make a short film highlighting some of its transforming work. The team chosen to take part in the venture included 15 pupils, aged between eight and 11, from Shotton Primary School, a poet and a technical crew.

The overall inspiration for the film was a Royal Mail millennium stamp featuring a scene of east Durham's coastline.

Shot on location at Blackhall Rocks, the project proved a fascinating venture for all those taking part.

With the work completed the best is still to come for the young stars. For the documentary will now join 11 others to form the centrepiece of an exhibition to be screened at the Royal Festival Hall, on London's South Bank, next month.

As the film includes a poetry element, all of the children participating in the project have been invited to the Poetry International 2000 event, which will also be held in the Royal Festival Hall on October 14, 2000.

The films will then tour cinemas in 12 regions throughout the country.

A spokeswoman at Shotton Primary said: "We are delighted that our school has been asked to participate in this excellent environmental regeneration initiative.