Children at Dinting CE Primary School have been busy doing their bit to support all those fleeing Ukraine.  

The Dinting Vale school, which has 136 pupils, has collectively raised almost £2,000 which will go to the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.  

Pupils came up with their own ideas to raise money – from collecting sponsors to do household chores to holding their own cake sales.  

Explaining how it all came about, head teacher Lynn Elliott told the Chronicle: “I led an assembly to all of the children in school and from that they went back to their classes and the children were saying to their teachers ‘what can we do to help?’  

“We thought about looking into getting a donation bank collecting items but, through the church, we realised they were already inundated with donations.  

“So we went back to the children and said we felt raising money would be the best way to help, so then they came up with their own fundraising ideas.”  

She continued: “Two classes held a yard sale one afternoon, selling cakes, old toys and old clothes. They made friendship bracelets and little flags, they planted sunflower seeds and sold all of those. That raised around £800.  

“The other three classes decided they would do sponsored events so they did jobs around the house – some got paid to walk the dog, wash the car, make cups of tea, load up and empty the dishwasher. So everyone did their own thing and so far we’ve raised £1,900. Money is still coming in so we’re hopeful of reaching the £2,000 mark which would be fantastic.  

“It was all the children’s ideas. They asked what they could do to help which is why we had different things across school.”  

Mrs Elliott said the support of parents and carers has been ‘absolutely amazing’.  

She said: “Some parents helped the children to do cake sales, some came in to support the yard sale and make cakes for that. One family had made 48 little candles with Ukraine flags on them to sell. It’s been absolutely brilliant and I want to thank them for all of their support.”  

The devastating scenes of innocent Ukrainian people’s lives being turned upside down by Russia’s invasion of the country have been incredibly difficult for us all to watch from afar, not least for young children.  

Mrs Elliott explained how the school has dealt with informing pupils about what’s happening in the war-hit nation.  

“The Collective Worship that I led was based on information from a presentation that came from the Derby Diocese as we’re a Church of England School,” she said.  

“We very much stuck to their advice because we didn’t want to scare any of the children. We’ve had a fabulous response from parents and some have thanked us for talking to the children about it because it’s all around them and on the news every time they turn the TV on.  

“We approached it as a whole school and made it clear it was okay to feel scared and we’ll support anyone in any way we can.”  

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