Five girls at South Craven School were as "happy as Larry" to be invited to an engineering day.

The five engineering students from the Cross Hills school joined pupils from seven other schools across the north of England for a Girls in Aerospace event at Bradford University's school of engineering, design and technology.

Organised by the Women into Science and Engineering campaign, the course offered the girls a chance to find out more about careers in engineering.

The 100 students were split into ten teams to design their own mini-hovercraft. The girls from South Craven were among the teams coming second and third.

Franki Coulthread, who will be the only girl to take engineering at A-level at the school next year, was in a team which designed the second-placed craft, called Larry. The 16-year-old, from Silsden, said: "It was a fun day. When Larry came in the top three we all cheered and clapped. We were as happy as Larry."

Claire Britton, who took the girls on the trip, said: "Obviously, now that we have engineering status at the school, a lot of boys are doing engineering and it is seen as a male orientated subject.

"We are trying to prime more girls to do engineering.

"We have been doing experiments in year eight to get boys doing food technology and girls to do engineering.

"In a female environment they won't let the boys take over."

She added: "The Girls in Aerospace event was a very positive environment to go and see girls from other schools, women lecturers and the female engineer of the year.

"The emphasis was on engineering for everybody.

"It was quite inspiring."