ONE of the great robberies of the 1950's has been solved - by a group of investigating school pupils.

ONE of the great robberies of the 1950's has been solved - by a group of investigating school pupils.

But before Scotland Yard comes knocking at their door, the fictional mystery was cracked by children at Whitehouse Junior School taking part in a brand new school trip.

Teachers at the school are celebrating after pioneering the new visit, which after the success of this test run is set to be added to the Key Stage 2 curriculum across the whole of Suffolk.

A group of Year five pupils from the school carried out a trial of the proposed new visit to the Ipswich Transport Museum - and the result was a big thumbs-up all round.

Claire Butcher, one of the teachers involved, said: “The new trip we have developed is aimed at children in Years three to six. It is about thinking skills and discussion techniques.

“The key is it is not just a history trip, the tour around the museum incorporates lots of different topics, including English, Maths and Science.”

And to put an extra big smile on the faces of the children on the day, the museum offered one of their vintage buses to transport the group for their day out.

Miss Butcher added: “They all loved the bus. And rather than just tour around the museum in one big group there were six different activities for the children to take part in.”

The tasks they had to undertake were all centred on a story constructed by the teachers, fitting in with a bank robbery in the 1950's.

The activities allowed the children to discover new clues leading to the name of the robber by the end of the day.

Miss Butcher said: “They all loved the day; they were just brimming with enthusiasm for the project.”