Castel's science week is out of this world

The priceless pieces were brought to the school on Monday and pupils were surprised stunned to find part of the school field cordoned off where the rocks had 'landed'.

A scientist from La Societe Guernesiaise was brought in to make sure the rocks were safe, before bringing them into the school hall as part of science week.

Headteacher Linda Paley said the children had really enjoyed the mystery around the rocks.

'We really wanted to get the children involved,' she said.

'It has been fantastic.'

The rocks included a 1.2-billion-year-old piece of Mars and a 4.3-billion-year-old piece of nickel meteorite, as well as pieces of lunar rock, which were collected by astronauts in the 1960s and 1970s.

The pieces are priceless and were lent to the school by the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council, which means the school has not been allowed to publicise that they had them and they had to be kept in a special case.

'The case has padlocks, with several codes and the pieces cannot be left alone, so they have to be locked away every night,' Ms Paley said.

'There has been top security.'