Oh yes we will! York's very own Panto Dame and local businessmen are rallying to the aid of a school with a 20 year old computer problem.

Lakeside School, Clifton, is one of the newest in the city, but its computers date back to the early 1980s and are incapable of linking to the Internet or using today's software.

So Berwick Kaler made a special visit to give a magic boost to its £30,000 Millennium Project to buy modern computers and bring its pupils up-to-date.

"We are very fortunate to get him," said teacher and information technology co-ordinator Steve Munzer.

"We hope in this next year, certainly by Easter, we should be connected to the Internet."

Businesses at nearby Clifton Moor have offered to send their current computers to the school when they upgrade them and some have offered financial help, he added.

The school currently has just one computer capable of receiving the Internet. Most of its computers are 1980s BBC and Acorn computers, and although they have their good points are extremely limited.

The Government has pledged to help the school's connection to the Internet.

But the school has more ambitious plans to set up a suite of 17 computers so classes can develop their high-tech skills together.

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