PUPILS from Ashton Keynes Primary School planted seeds sent down from outer space last week.

In September last year two kilograms of rocket seeds were flown to the International Space Station, where they spent several months in the care of Wiltshire astronaut Tim Peake.

They returned to earth in March and have since been sent out to schools participating in the Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) Rocket Science challenge, of which Ashton Keynes is thrilled to be one.

Each participating school has received two packs of seeds. One pack containing seeds that were sent into space, while the second pack had stayed on earth.

Children at Ashton Keynes primary planted their seeds last week and must grow them in the same conditions, plotting their development and taking measurements at different points.

They will then see which are the first to germinate and predict which batch of seeds had been to space.

Katherine Redman teaches the year two class responsible for the seeds at Ashton Keynes Primary, and she was as excited as the children to be taking part in the experiment.

“The children have been hugely excited that they’ve held something that has been into space,” she said.

“They’ve worked hard to make sure they follow the strict rules that come with it.”

Rebecca Clifford, 7, was excited when she heard she was going to be planting seeds sent from space: She said: “I thought it was like having a dream.”

Stuart Jackson runs the gardening club at Ashton Keynes Primary and was responsible for signing the school up to the challenge.

“I thought it would be a good thing for the kids to get involved in,” he said.

“It was a great opportunity to get them enthused and involved in gardening.

“The kids were so excited when the seeds got brought in.

“They love that an Englishman is up there.”

RHS skills development manager Claire Custance said: “RHS Rocket Science provides schools across Wiltshire and Gloucestershire with a unique opportunity to engage young people in horticulture and STEM subjects.

“Educators can use this experiment and our suites of age-specific resources to teach the curriculum in a new, innovative way using real world issues of food security and the possible future settlement of humans on another planet.

“Among the hundreds of thousands of young people taking part in RHS Rocket Science there could be dozens that grow up to help get an astronaut to Mars, hundreds who could build careers in the sciences and horticulture, and tens of thousands who will have a new appreciation of the natural world and the role plants play in all our lives, and that is an incredibly exciting prospect.”