EVEN though they are not much more than five years old, the 13 tots who went on their school's Primary Pootle on Sunday were already looking back on old times.

The reception class at Sunnybrow went back to their old nursery schools in Willington Primary and Willington C of E schools, taking the 2-mile round trip at a leisurely pace.

Their afternoon pootle - a word made up from poodle and tootle and meaning to take a leisurely stroll - had the added bonus of bringing in £20 in voluntary contributions to school funds.

But the main aim of class teacher Caroline Tuddenham was to remind children of their early schooldays.

She said: "Nursery school is a very important time for the little ones and they have talked about it a lot.

"We have no nursery class here so our children had to make a bigger step up than most when they came."

And the pootle? It came from one of Miss Tuddenham's favourite expressions.

She said: "I am always saying to the children things like 'let's pootle round to the cloakroom' so they all know what it means."