THIS is when a day at school really is out of this world.

More than 60 pupils from two schools took a trip into outer space when they spent the day with the National Space Academy this week.

The students from King Alfred's in Wantage and Larkmead in Abingdon constructed 'space rockets' out of spaghetti and marshmallows, learnt about the solar system and even tried to build their own telescopes from basic equipment, as demonstrated by these three engineers from King Alfred's – Joe Wright, Owen McDonagh and Lewis Froud.

The event on Monday was hosted by Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Harwell and space academy staff travelled from their HQ in Leicester.

King Alfred's student Rachel Penrose said afterwards: "I have a much better idea now of the size of the universe and the number of galaxies in it."

Fellow student Tom Ratcliffe added: "I was really interested by the large numbers of planets that are estimated to have habitable conditions."

Space academy tutor Andy McMurray said he was 'blown away' by the depth and complexity of students' questions.

Pam Stokell, who led the trip from King Alfred's, said: "It was a fantastic day, and the space academy staff were absolutely brilliant at engaging and inspiring our students.

"A huge thank you to Rutherford Appleton Labs for letting us hold this event on their site."