Panda fever has hit a bamboo-zled Scotland with the arrival of Sunshine and Sweetie at Edinburgh Zoo, but no one is more delighted than their proud ‘parents’ – from Loudoun Academy in Galston.

The exotic bears were adopted in February this year by a group of Loudoun Academy pupils as part of a modern studies project – and there’s a plaque on front of the new £300,000 state-of-the-art panda enclosure which says so, for all to se

Julia Preston, support for learning teacher at the Galston school, said: “We were looking at imaginative ways for the children in the S2 Fast Track group to do outdoor education. At the same time, pupils were studying China in Modern Studies. I read about how animals can aid learning in children – so it all came together when I looked at the Edinburgh Zoo website and read about China’s favourite animals – the giant pandas”

With the help of the zoo’s education department and the Scottish Chinese Education Network (SCEN), the Loudoun kids officially adopted the cuddly creatures – Chinese names Yang Guang and Tian Tian – on Chinese New Year 2011 and received a certificate from the zoo.

Julia said:” I arranged for the zoo to phone me when I had the class in front of me, to break the news that we had officially adopted the pandas.

“We made a big day of it at school on the Chinese New Year – the Year of the Rabbit – which began in mid-February, when the full moon appeared.  Our pupils celebrated the event by learning how to use chopsticks, make lanterns and lucky money wallets, as well as studying Chinese calligraphy and tasting lucky candy and fortune cookies.

“Mrs Yang, Chinese language teacher from Grange Academy’s Confucius Hub, visited Loudoun and taught the children some Mandarin. As part of the cultural experience, we also learned about the moon festival and the Chinese horoscope”.

Barry Hutchinson, Sifu of Four Seasons Wing Chun Gung Fu gave pupils kung fu lessons and demonstrated the famous Lion Dance. Youngsters got in on the act, playing the drums and trying on the lion’s head.

The Fast Track group of nine pupils also visited Edinburgh Zoo in March and gave a talk to an audience of 250 people about endangered animals in China and Scotland.

But the best is yet to come – for the youngsters, who are now in S3 and known as the Top Gear group, plan to travel to Edinburgh to celebrate Chinese New Year on 23 January with their panda ‘children’, who have travelled 5,000 miles from Chengdu.

Said Julia: “2012 will be the Year of the Dragon, which is the most important year in the Chinese calendar, so we’re looking forward to a really fantastic day”.

Councillor Hugh Ross, Spokesperson for Lifelong Learning, said: “All of these events and new experiences of learning outwith the school are exactly what is recommended in Curriculum for Excellence, to give young people opportunities to be more confident in the outside world, to show that they can be responsible citizens and to encourage a ‘can-do’ attitude”.

“The young people’s close involvement with these internationally famous pandas will continue to provide the pupils with the opportunity to put into practice much of what they have learned”.

The pandas will go on display on December 16, but will be kept apart till the breeding season in February – after which, with any luck, the Loudoun pupils could become adoptive ‘grandparents’ of the UK’s first panda cubs.

See www.rzsspanda.org.uk/ for further info.