Pupils from a tiny school near Inverness competing in the finals of a prestigious science competition are hoping a planned rail strike will not get in their way.
Four children from 11-pupil Daviot Primary have designed and built their own floating wave energy device in a bid to win a Junior Saltire Award at an event in Glasgow on Friday.
But their trains to and from the venue coincide with a planned 24-hour strike starting at 5pm on Thursday involving members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union.
The Celebration of Science and Engineering and will be staged at the Glasgow Science Centre.
The school’s headteacher Andy McCallum, has been calling parents since Friday to try and organise alternative travel arrangements in case the strike goes ahead.
The children, the school’s four P6-7 pupils, are desperate to win the award after finishing a close second last year.
More than 200 schools from around Scotland entered this year’s contest.
The competition is the junior version of the £10million Saltire Prize Challenge, created by the Scottish Government to accelerate the commercial development of wave and tidal energy technology.
The pupils’ small wave energy converter is composed of a plastic box weighed down with lead which rocks in the waves and causes a pendulum inside to swing and turn a dynamo to produce electricity.
On Thursday they will test their gadgets at Edinburgh Univeristy’s FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility, the world’s most sophisticated ocean simulator.
Winners will be announced at Friday’s event and criteria consists of strength of electrical output, uniqueness of design, and quality of the team’s oral presentation on their work for the project.
Mr McCallum said: “At the moment we are hoping that the strike is not going to prevent us from travelling because that would be a travesty for the school. I am in the process of arranging alternative transport.
“Daviot Primary is a tiny rural school in the Highlands. We only have 11 pupils on roll at the moment – so we think making the final two years running is a very special achievement indeed.
“The Junior Saltire Award is such an inspiring event, and we hope it will propel some of our students into becoming world changing engineers of the future.”