Children came out of their shells when their nursery school encouraged them to help raise cute chicks as part of an exciting learning experience.

Youngsters, aged three months to five years, at the Children First Nursery Group in Dalston were tasked with helping out some mother hens by looking after 10 eggs, eight of which later hatched.

Alison Follows, the manager at the nursery in Shacklewell Lane, said: “We have had chicks here for the last few weeks – they came as eggs in an incubator and the children got to watch them hatch, then the second week we got to hold them and care for them before they went back to a farm.

“It was amazing and the children haven’t stopped talking about it. We’re definitely going to do it again next year, and now we’re looking into getting some caterpillars to watch them turn into butterflies.”