HAVING literally been on top of the world, Lochgelly High School's polar explorers returned home to a hero's welcome on Wednesday.

After taking on some of the world's most unforgiving terrain in the frozen Arctic, the 10 teenagers returned to the warm embrace of family and friends.

Mums and dads gathered at the arrivals gate at Glasgow Airport to greet their kids and the expedition team's return to Lochgelly High was greeted by applause from fellow pupils and music from the school's pipe band.

Kieran Burns, Morgan Adam, Carla Masterton, Megan Hargrave, Lauren Scott, Daniel Pratt, Conner Harper, Daisy George, Carrie Wotherspoon and Hannah Reid, accompanied by headteacher Carol Ann Penrose, took part in the Polar Academy's 16 day trip to Arctic Greenland.

Its motto is 'inspiration through exploration' and aims to raise the youngsters' self-esteem by giving them a life-changing experience and showing how ordinary pupils can achieve the extraordinary.

Craig Mathieson, who runs the Polar Academy charity, said: "When I first met them, they were shells of children but now they've confident young adults who have done something no-one else has.

"This trip was the longest, we skied further than ever before and opened up new routes, and almost immediately you saw them grow when they realised they could achieve greater things than they could ever dream of."

Ahead of the trip, there was a selection process as the best part of 300 applications from senior pupils at Lochgelly was whittled down to 20, with eight months of rigorous training and £100,000 of fundraising before they jetted off to Iceland at the start of April.

From there it was on to Greenland and the thrill of a helicopter ride before starting their expedition.

The pupils had to haul their own 45kg sledge, navigate, camp on the sea ice and undertake scientific experiments, travelling around 120km in the 12 days they were on the ice.

Polar bear fences had to be erected, pupils had to dig their own toilet – complete with privacy wall – and put tents up before the task of cooking their meals in sub-zero temperatures.

Carrie, 15, told the Times: "I've never been away for that long without my mum and dad so not being able to contact them was difficult at first.

"Some days were very tough, going uphill on skis and pulling the sledges too, but it was just a brilliant trip.

I didn't really know everyone before, a couple are in a different year, but we're all pretty close now."

She added: "It's given me more confidence, before I'd probably have struggled to even sit down and talk to you, but I think I've really grown with what I've achieved.

"The whole experience, it really was once in a lifetime and I'll never see anything like that again."

Polar Academy is run and managed by Craig, an accomplished explorer who led the first dedicated Scottish expedition to the South Pole.

He has also journeyed to the North Pole and in 2013 he was awarded the title of Explorer in Residence by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.

Sharing his experiences with schools, he discovered that many young adults have very little self-confidence and motivation and are of the general opinion that they will not be able to achieve anything significant in their lives.

Craig decided to do something about this and the concept of The Polar Academy was born.

Lochgelly headteacher, Carol Ann Penrose, said: "The whole experience was fantastic. It started a year ago when we opened it up to the senior pupils and we had 274 applications.

"From that we had to pick 20, so selection was not an easy task. There were 10 in the expedition team and 10 in the leadership team, who went through the same training.

"From there I started to see a massive difference in terms of the children's confidence and just getting on with things.

"Before it would be 'I can't do that' or they'd hold back but Craig was brilliant with them, so unassuming, it was a case of 'Well you just have to do it'."

She added: "We watched them get fitter, their health and diet improved and before we went they gave a presentation to the staff and all the staff from the cluster primaries too, there must have been about 120 people.

"These were kids that would hardly look at you before, very quiet and unassuming, flying under the radar. They weren't vulnerable or obviously up there, but ones that are forgotten sometimes.

"So to hear their presentation, which they did with confidence and a lot of humour too, about the training and the expedition, was just brilliant."

The expedition team and Ms Penrose will attend an awards ceremony in Broomhall, Lord Elgin's home near Limekilns, on Thursday where they will give a presentation on their trip before the parents present their children with special medals.

The headteacher will receive her medal from her three kids.