Pupils at a school in Mill Hill were the first in the world to receive revolutionary eye checks on World Sight Day 2006 last Thursday.

Four and five-year-olds at Dollis Infant School, in Pursley Road, were the first to use new software, introduced by Barnet Primary Care Trust (PCT), which quickly and efficiently detects poor vision among school children.

The school was specifically chosen to use the programme, called City Vision Screener, as it successfully took part in a trial two years ago.

The screening takes about three minutes and detects any problems children have focusing either eye - including such sight defects as lazy eye - and then provides parents with detailed feedback on the test results and advises them what action to take.

Professor David Thomson, head of optometry for the Institute of Health Sciences at City University, who designed the programme with Barnet PCT, said the efficiency of the software and test administration left no room for errors.

He said: "Eye problems are surprisingly common among school children, as many as one in five have problems with their eyes and that can be a major disadvantage in school.

"Children are not very good at reporting when they have a problem, and we believe this programme will enable all those children to be picked up at the earliest possible stage, before it affects their social and educational development."