YSGOL y Moelwyn students have been blown away after their weather balloons travelled all the way to Germany.

The Blaenau Ffestiniog students had predicted their science projects would land somewhere near Stoke-on-Trent but were staggered to discover that their two school-made projects, both carrying slate from Llechwedd slate caverns, had flown over 500 miles to land on the continent.

Recently, science teacher Gareth Davies and his pupils released two weather balloons as an experiment from the school’s playing field with the intention of capturing a bird’s eye view of Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Both weather balloons carried a camera, a tracker and a piece of specially designed slate - though to be the first bits of slate to have ever travelled in space.

One of the slates was decorated with Palestinian flags, an act of recognition from the Ysgol y Moelwyn pupils that some children are facing terrible hardships across the world.

“It was crazy, we released the balloons and expected them to travel a few miles before landing again,” an excited Mr Davies told the Cambrian News.

See this week’s north editions for the full story, in shops and online on Thursday