THREE young girls will never have an excuse to be late for school again.

Triplets Lily, Grace and Eve Gilmour, 10, spent Saturday afternoon making pocket sundials at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford.

The Chilton Primary School pupils used MDF and paints to create the ancient tools. And with yesterday’s sunshine the girls, who live in Chilton, near Didcot, got to test out their carefully-crafted timepieces.

Mother Emma Gilmour said: “They’ve been carrying them around, getting them out and testing to see if they work, which they do. I guess many think it hard to tell the time so accurately without a watch but people have been doing it for centuries. The girls got so much out of the day, I think the workshops are brilliant.”

Eve said: “When I made it I thought it was going to be about half an hour out so it was amazing to see it was so right. I had such fun and would like to learn more about how people lived back then.”

Her sister Grace added: “We have a sundial in school but it was brilliant to actually make one and learn about them.”