Young pupils in Eurovision battle

The live Schoolovision 2009 contest is being held on Friday

An East Lothian teacher has created a Eurovision Song Contest for pupils in a bid to teach them more about Europe.

Yester Primary School teacher Michael Purves has set up "Schoolovision 2009" which will see his Gifford classroom link up with schools in 31 countries.

The schools have each uploaded a video of their song, representative of their country, onto the project blog.

Pupils will vote during the week before a live voting session between the schools on Friday.

The competition will be held in the same way as the real Eurovision contest, which is being held the following day.

Mr Purves told the BBC Scotland news website: "The project has proved extremely popular with all the participants already, and many countries are taking the contest very seriously.

"In Poland and Iceland, for example, the schools have held qualifying rounds in order to choose their song to represent them and the Danish class have already been featured on local TV.

"In Norway, the local mayor will be present with the class for the live vote."

The winning country will be sent a specially commissioned trophy, which has been ordered by Mr Purves.