NINE students enjoyed an evening with the stars after a kind-hearted donation.

The pupils from Dunbar Grammar School attended a dinner with Sir David Attenborough in Edinburgh, after tickets for a table for 10 at the annual Hunter Foundation event were donated by Ros Lowrie and Patrick Burns, whose daughter attends the school.

The pupils were joined at the event in the National Museum of Scotland by Pam McIntosh, principal teacher for pupil support at the secondary school.

Mrs McIntosh said: “I cannot explain how very privileged I felt to be in the presence of David Attenborough and to hear him speak – he was so interesting and engaging.

“I cannot thank enough the nine young people who I was lucky enough to accompany to the event.

“They were a credit to themselves, their families and the school.

“They were polite, mature, sensible, funny and genuinely good company.”

The teacher was joined by Kim Appleby (S3), Abbi Ross (S1), Jessica Walker (S4), Caelan Gourlay (S1), Daisy Gray (S1), Tonney Aitchison (S1), Joe Madden (S6), Kitty Bird (S3) and Tess Brennan (S3).

Six of the pupils who attended had entered the National Hunter Foundation Competition, while the remaining three were selected from a random list within the school because of their work relating to climate change.

The group was met by flaming torches and a piper at the event in Edinburgh, before meeting television personality Sean Batty and then joining the other 800 guests for the event.

Those in attendance heard speeches from Sir Tom Hunter; Alison Rose, the newly appointed head of Royal Bank of Scotland; and Keith Anderson, chief executive of ScottishPower.

Mrs McIntosh added: “Matt Baker from the The One Show was the host for the evening and introduced Sir David.

“The room fell silent as David took us from his childhood through university to conscription to Edinburgh in 1947.

“He was interesting, funny and so very knowledgeable about almost everything.

“He progressed to how he was made BBC 2 controller in the 1960s and pipped Germany to be the first nation to broadcast television in colour – by three weeks.

“It was here that David started his adventures into Africa.”

Physicist Sir Brian Cox also took part in discussions about the devastation being faced by the planet.

Mrs McIntosh added: “The three main things I took from Sir David’s chat were: there are three times more people on the planet compared to when Sir David was born; of all of the birds that are on our planet, 82 per cent of them are chickens; and we need to stop wasting – stop wasting lives, power, food, space and time.”