A Scottish pupil arrived in China yesterday to participate in a global contest to encourage dialogue between youngsters from different countries.

S5 pupil Claire Pollington, from Grove Academy in Dundee, will represent her school in Beijing in the final of the Unesco “Mondialogo” contest.

The Dundee secondary and its partners from a Japanese school, Fukiai High in Kobe, make up one of only 50 teams which have been selected from more than 2,700 in the competition this year.

The two schools took part in a project, “Promoting Cultures through Folk Tales”, in which they told each other traditional stories from their own countries.

Grove Academy pupils found inspiration in stories sent from Japan and created books for young children based on the tales. The Kobe students created “Kamishibai” - traditional Japanese picture dramas of Scottish stories. The two schools communicated through the internet and email to take the project forward.

The three best projects will be selected by an international jury, with the winners announced at an awards ceremony on Sunday.

www.mondialogo.org