Schoolchildren in north London have been having a maths lesson taught by an internationally-acclaimed mathematics researcher.

But the pupils and teacher never met - it was all done over a video conference link.

The class of 14-year-olds, made up of pupils from five schools in London, were being taught by Dr Alan Beardon in Cambridge through a programme called 'Motivate', which marked the start of a national scheme, the Millennium Mathematics Project.

The London end of the video conference was at John Kelly Girls' Technology College.

There were five students from the college, with five from each of John Kelly Boys' Technology College, Camden School for Girls, Elizabeth Garret Anderson School and Sarah Bonnell School.

Teaching resource

Dr. Beardon talked to them about his career in mathematics, then moved on to his main subject, fractals.

The groups of students also made presentations about their recent maths work, and were given separate tasks to go away and work on. They will report back in a month's time.

Four similar conference with different mathematicians will follow next January, February, May and June.

Videos of the sessions will be used as a teaching resource in schools and on training courses for teachers.

The main idea is to demonstrate that maths can be exciting.

'Rewarding career'

The headteacher there at the girls' technology college, Kathryn Heaps, said it was difficult sometimes to get over to the students that maths was exciting.

"They see it as a subject they have to study, not leading on to any specific career," she said.

"I believe that Motivate will show them, especially the girls, that maths can be a very rewarding and interesting career."

'Motivate' is a pilot programme developed by Cambridge University's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and School of Education.

'Educational and fun'

"This programme is a wonderful opportunity to bring pupils into direct contact with outstanding mathematicians and to get across the message to future generations that maths can be both educational and fun," said the project's director, Professor John Barrow.

The programme was chosen by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) as one of its pioneer projects, giving it �70,000.

Janet Morrisson from Nesta, who was at the technology college for the first session, said it had gone very well.

"There will always be slight nerves about the first one," she said. "The main issue is whether the students were feeling overawed by having lots of people watching them have a class, but they all seemed cheery and buzzy beforehand.

"I think some of them thought it was better than having normal lessons," she added.

Nesta's chief executive, Jeremy Newton, said it was an advert for what interactive education could achieve.

"This programme will create opportunities that pupils would not otherwise experience," he said.

"Nesta is pleased to be able to provide this link and hopes it will provide a model that others might be able to take up."