Scouring the Cairngorm National Park for golden eagles is a school day that few pupils will forget easily.
Alvie Primary School, near Kingussie, used their unique location to their advantage and took the classroom outdoors, combining learning in science, technology, art and design, music and drama and communication skills.
The school worked with Highland Council ranger Duncan Macdonald and followed two golden eagles who have been satellite tagged.
The project involved a series of letters to the school from 'Tom' the eagle. The first explained he was still in his parents' eyrie and did not know where he should go to live.
Primary classes worked on the project in different ways. P1-3 pupil's researched suitable habitats while older pupils were able to track Tom's progress on the internet and a wall map of the National Park. The children also researched what Tom could eat, with younger children developing wall friezes and older children building a full size eagle to hang from the ceiling. Dances, poetry and music were also created based around the flight, life and death of golden eagles.
The highlight of the project was the field trip to Glen Feshie to explore the habitat of the birds and see a captive golden eagle in flight. The pupils also created a full scale eyrie in the playground for themselves.
Sadly, the other eagle 'Alma' was found illegally poisoned last year which spurred the pupils to write to the Minister for the Environment and ask her to visit their school. The pupils then created posters condemning the poisoning and a PowerPoint and photostory presentation to show to her.
Head teacher Hilary Brown said the project brought meaning to the world around the pupils. She said: "Pupils were able to debate an issue which was of very local interest to them. Some of the children's parents are gamekeepers and farmers and had to weigh up the idea that golden eagles are predators against their symbolism as an iconic bird in Scotland. All this gave meaning to their work.
"It was lovely to see pupils begin to believe they have a voice and to begin to understand what living in a democracy means."