Essex schoolchildren expecting a once in a lifetime experience at the Millennium Dome face disappointment following the announcement they have been barred from its most popular areas.

Schoolchildren on free trips to the Millennium Dome will not be able to go into the body, play and rest zones, Dome organisers said.

Huge queues built up outside the body zone at the beginning of this month as visitors lined up to see a giant, beating heart and a robot joke-telling brain.

The play zone has also proved a big attraction, particularly its neighbouring Timekeepers of the Millennium exhibit which is also out of bounds to free school visitors.

All the junior children at Langenhoe County Primary School, near Colchester, have been awarded free tickets for the dome on February 29.

Headteacher Nick Stanley said: "I am surprised because I thought the idea was that children said how wonderful it all was and told their parents who would then take the whole family.

"I will be disappointed if we do not get into the one or two of the areas such as the body zone."

Linda French, secretary at Heathlands C of E Primary School in West Bergholt, said the school - which got 100 free tickets for Year 5 and 6 pupils and ten staff tickets - knew there would be restrictions on where they went in the dome as it was stated on the application forms for free tickets.

She said whatever happens the children and staff are very excited about their day out to the dome on February 8.

A New Millennium Experience Company spokesman said: "We felt these zones were not appropriate for the national curriculum to which these free visits are linked."

Pupils will see the Millennium Show in the central area.

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