A GENEROUS pupil has got her classmates thinking about those less fortunate this Christmas, after organising a shoe box appeal at her school.

Mya Waterworth, aged eight, inspired staff and children at St John’s Primary School to launch an appeal for donations to help children who would otherwise have no presents to open on Christmas morning.

After presenting her idea to teaching assistant and school council lead, Deborah Barrington, around 100 donations have been collected for the Blythswood Care shoe box appeal, which last year distributed gifts to children in countries including Albania, Kosovo, Pakistan, Serbia and Ukraine.

Mya, of Sefton Street, decided to propose setting up an appeal after enjoying similar campaigns at her former school, in the Isle of Man, and enlisted the help of her mum to research how to organise it.

Nicola McHarrie, Mya’s mum, said: “Mya was voted by her class to be in the school council and when it was coming to her first meeting, she told me how she would love to organise a shoe box appeal but felt too shy to ask Mrs Barrington.

“I wrote a letter for Mrs Barrington, with Mya’s help, explaining how Mya thought it was a good idea to do a shoe box appeal as Christmas is not always good for everyone around the world and how some children have no presents to open on Christmas Day and no family or friends.

“The school loved the idea and I think it is important to teach children that Christmas is all about giving.

“I am very proud of Mya, it was a wonderful idea and it is so nice to know that she is thinking of less fortunate people.”

All of the items donated by pupils – including toiletries, toys, and books – were sent to Radcliffe Road Baptist Church to be collected by the charity earlier this month.

Mrs Barrington said: “After Mya came to us with the idea, we didn’t have a lot of time before the collection deadline.

“What we decided to do was collect as many items as we could and empty shoe boxes, which we then gave to the church. It is the first time the school have done this and we are now going to make it an annual appeal.

“The fact that Mya was thinking of things we could do to help other people is wonderful. She has taken her role on the school council very seriously and we are very proud of her.”