A SCHOOL project is not just helping pupils to learn but providing vital assistance to youngsters on the other side of the world.

Pupils at Prestolee Primary School have raised more than £1,000 to help children and their families in remote villages in Nepal which are still struggling following the devastating earthquake in April, 2015.

Villages are still without basic amenities including a schoolroom.

Year Five children have written letters to the Nepalese children to show their support for them and have held a talent show and a raffle to raise funds for the villages ranging from 80 to 250 people. This money has helped buy books and other teaching materials to restock the school.

Pupils have learned how children in deprived and remote hill villages in the Himalayas live — lives which are very different from their own. The long daily walks to school, tending goats, harvesting rice and carrying heavy loads of fire wood. They have also seen how their own fundraising efforts can bring about direct results.

The project was the brainchild of the CEO of Prestolee Multi Academy Trust Mike Tonge and assistant head-teacher Sophie Wright.

Mr Tonge said: “We saw in the news in April, 2015 the devastation caused by the earthquakes.We wanted to do something to help.

“You can of course donate to large charities but that can feel remote. One of our colleagues, Helen Woodward, had returned from Nepal shortly before the earthquakes and was in regular contact with the headteacher of this school. She co-founded a fundraising project to support the re-building of the school so with these links we can directly support Antarastriya Yuwa Barsa School, east of Kathmandu.

“It’s so easy to focus just on the challenges we have here in the UK. Last year, here in Bolton, 45 of our families were flooded out of their homes so we have some idea of coming through disasters, but not on the scale of our teaching colleagues in Nepal.”

Miss Wright said: “We heard how the earthquake had left school buildings damaged and even the water supply had gone.” As a teacher I understood immediately how difficult that would have been. One thing we thought we could do was to write letters for the children at the school to show our support.

“Apart from raising this huge amount of money, a great achievement for Prestolee and which has made a massive difference, it was wonderful to see the photos of the Nepalese children with their new books and the letters from our children — a direct impact from our fundraising efforts.

Children said they were proud they had made a difference and are helping youngsters thrive and succeed.