Damp;G is the Place to Be was thought out, planned, researched and written by the children of Cummertrees Primary’s P345 composite class, and the glossy, professionally-produced guidebook is now available from the school.

On each page, one child takes the reader to his or her favourite place in Dumfries and Galloway and recommends activities other children might enjoy.

“They all had favourite places to visit and couldn’t agree on which was the best, so every child in the class had one page,” says headteacher Georgina Davis. “They came up with a whole range of activities, some close by, some more far-flung, some completely free and others with some cost to them, which made for a really well-balanced guidebook.”

The places range from Caerlaverock Castle to dairy farm Cream o’ Galloway and Moffat Boating Pond. The children were taken on each trip by their families who supported the project.

The school does a project on Dumfries and Galloway every few years and, because the pupils often think they already know everything about the area, the school had to come up with an innovative approach, says Ms Davis.

Led by their teacher Phyllis Kirkwood, the children were involved in every stage of the project, from the planning to the visits, on which each child took the school camera to take pictures to go with their article, and negotiations with the printers at Dumfries and Galloway Print Unit.

One group visited the unit and learnt about the production process, as well as essentials for creating a good product. The print unit carried out the work at a subsidised rate, and pupils decided that any profits from sales would go towards a day out as a reward, and then to Comic Relief, the school’s chosen charity.