CHILDREN at a York village primary school have held a “pigeon liberation” ceremony to launch their school sports assembly.

Instead of releasing balloons, which could harm the environment, pupils at Naburn Primary School released racing pigeons.

Pigeon fancier Mark Trinder, of Doncaster, brought his racing pigeons to the school.

Pupils were able to touch and hold the birds beforehand.

The release was the idea of parent Jill Hill, who said: “It ticked a lot of things on the curriculum such as biology with the life cycle, the geography of where they travel and even the maths to work out the time it takes for them to get places.”