Pupils at a Bradford school have become international Internet stars after picking up a global virtual classroom award in Japan.

Burley Middle School became the grand prize winners of the primary school category in the AT&T Virtual Classroom contest.

They won the category in partnership with Emerald Primary School, near Melbourne in Australia and Sixth Avenue Elementary in Aurora, Colorado, USA.

Two pupils Alexa Lord, 11, and Charlotte Talbot, 12, travelled to Tokyo with their information technology teacher David Womersley to pick up the prize and to meet face-to-face children from the Australia and the United States with whom they have been communicating via the Internet.

The cyberspace classmates collaborated on a project exploring their own versions of the English language and they investigated the difference in attitudes, cultures, likes and dislikes.

All the findings have been graphically illustrated and presented on the Internet on Burley Middle's web page.

JoAnn Patrick-Ezzell, president of AT&T Asia/Pacific, and one of the competition judges, said: "The Internet defies national and cultural boundaries and provides the tools to bring countries and cultures closer together.

"With the AT&T virtual classroom programme we have brought students from across the globe together in a project that truly demonstrates our support of the use of the Internet as a tool for learning."

Burley's project investigated how "kids speak, how kids think and what kids do".

One question Burley's pupils asked was: "Would like to have tea with the Queen?" The cyberfriends in the United States were very keen but their Australian counterparts were not so enthusiastic.

They also asked: "Do you believe in God?" Only one in three children at Burley and Emerald Primary said they did but the majority of pupils at Sixth Avenue believed in God.

Teacher David Womersley said: "The Internet has opened up the children's eyes. It has allowed them to find out about different countries and cultures. By communicating with children across the globe they can find out about other ways of life and what other children think."

Burley's website can be found at http://www.burleyms.demon.co.uk.

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