On Friday, Year 7 and 8 students became archaeologists for the day as they worked with DigVentures at St Mary's Church in Barnard Castle.
DigVentures are a social business that specialise in crowdfunding, crowdsourcing and digital methods to increase public participation in archaeological research.
The students learned about how archaeologists use bones to investigate why people died and the connection between wider national events and the town.
History teacher, Dr Henderson, said "It was a really hands on session and the students were fascinated to learn how much we can understand about the past by looking at the bones of people who died at different points in history. We are excited about further projects exploring the rich local history that is all around us."
The Teesdale History Research Group have plans to work with DigVentures in the summer term and produce an issue of their journal that looks into how Barnard Castle has changed over time and what we can learn from local history.