Pupils at St John’s Primary School have raised more than £250 for a children’s charity.

The school’s council decided to organise a sports event in support of Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity as part of the Captain Tom 100 campaign.

The afternoon was well supported by parents and the school children managed to raise £262.14, more than their £250 target.

Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity supports seriously ill children and young people who have long-term serious conditions that are often overlooked like sickle cell, epilepsy, neuro muscular disease and undiagnosed conditions.

The Captain Tom 100 Challenge is inspired by Captain Sir Tom Moore, who on April 6, 2020, at the age of 99, began to walk 100 lengths of his garden in aid of NHS Charities Together, with the goal of raising £1,000 by his 100th birthday on April 30.

During the 24-day course of his fundraising, he made many media appearances and became a popular household name in the UK, earning a number of accolades and attracting more than 1.5 million individual donations.

He passed away on February 2, 2021 but his legacy lives on through the Captain Tom Foundation created in his honour.

The Captain Tom 100 Challenge asks people to do a challenge involving the number 100 to raise money for charity.

The event held last Wednesday, May 12, challenged all of the children to take part in accumulating as many ’hundreds’ as possible in various sport activities, including skipping, running, batting a ball, scoring goals, hula-hooping and completing an assault course.

Teachers Sara Ayres and Matthew Callister said that the older council members had really risen to the challenge and shown great leadership skills, organised children into their houses and led their groups around the various events, ensuring that all members of their teams had a go and were able to try the various sports.

Although it was non-competitive, many children challenged themselves to improve their personal scores.

Deputy headteacher Mr Callister commented: ’The school council were instrumental in organising the publicity, writing letters to parents, getting equipment together and working with the teachers and our MSR coach, Callum, to put on a fun event for everyone.’