HATCHING chicks have answered an age-old question for primary school children.

Pupils at Downe School, High Elms Road, Downe, have spent the past three weeks fascinated by the eggs kept in an incubator in their classroom.

The chicks have now started hatching, showing the children the egg came before the chicken.

Teacher Linda Reid-Smith said: "They are very aware of the need to take care of them.

"A little girl said to me That's how life begins'.

"It has helped them to learn about how the chicks develop."

The incubator simulates a mother hen by keeping the eggs between 37.4C and 37.6C and rotating them twice an hour.

An aunt of two of the children donated the incubator to the class of 22 pupils aged seven and eight years old.

Downe School has 71 pupils aged between four and 11.