LOCHGELLY High School kids who were on top of the world in April will tell councillors all about their "once in a lifetime" adventures in the frozen Arctic.

Ten teenagers returned to a warm welcome after taking part in the Polar Academy's 16 day expedition in April, which saw them tackle some of the world's most unforgiving terrain in Greenland.

And some of the group – 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 – will give a presentation today at the Cowdenbeath area committee.

They'll tell councillors about life in the freezer, which included digging their own toilet in the snow, watching out for polar bears and trying to avoid sunburn.

There was also a visit from an Arctic fox, the beautiful sight of the northern lights and the close knit bond the teenagers developed on the frozen sea-ice – all without their mobile phones!

The academy's 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.

When they returned, 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.”

There was £100,000 of fundraising to be done before the trip, which started with a flight to Iceland and then onto Greenland, where a helicopter ride kick-started the 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.

The whole school turned out to welcome the explorers home and they each received a Polar Academy medal at a special awards ceremony hosted by Lord Bruce at Broomhall House, Limekilns.

Reflecting on the adventure, one of the pupils, Carrie, told the Times: “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."