A HEAVY-HITTING production prepared by Bridgwater schoolchildren has been unleashed.

Somerset theatre education company Actiontrack helped with the show throughout November with workshops and a performance about the abolition of the slave trade.

Local junior schools were invited to take part on December 3, 4 and 5 and another novel element of this work was that the production was entirely devised by the Chilton students themselves, which included song, dance and improvisation.

School spokesman Allan Blake said: "The songs, which contain powerful images have been written by the students and all of the scenery has been built and painted by them as well.

"In order to have achieved all of this without interrupting too much of the academic day, and working within tight deadlines, students had been tackling the project between the hours of 2pm and 7pm."