And now they want to put those lessons into practice by making the Yuletide season a little brighter for people in the community that are less fortunate.

Students from years one and two have been busy collecting pantry items for a Christmas hamper that they plan to donate to the Salvation Army at the end of the month.

Cessnock East Stage One classroom teacher Sharni Wynands said that students had been focusing, this term, on celebrations and how they can celebrate the gift of giving.

“We do real projects every year and this term it’s based around what we can do to give back to the community,” Miss Wynands said.

“So, they decided that they wanted to donate some things to the Salvation Army for Christmas”

Miss Wynands added that the children’s interest was piqued after a visit to the school from the Salvos and that she had been utterly impressed with the way the students had latched on the the initiative and run with it.

“The children absolutely love the project and they are really intrigued,” she said.

“We had a representative from the Salvation Army come in to the school and speak to the kids and that just triggered that spark in them.

“They were instantly talking about what they can do to give something back.”

Aside from raiding their own pantries for items to donate to the hamper, Miss Wynands said the children had been busy making flyers for distribution to businesses around Cessnock in order to raise awareness of their donation drive.

“The aim is to get as many pantry items so we can put it all in a basket and donate it back to the community, and the best thing is the kids are doing this all by themselves.”

The children are constantly on the lookout for non-perishable food items and things like Christmas crakers for their hamper drive.

Anyone wishing to donate to the worthy cause can drop items in to the school’s front office before Monday 19 November. For more information, phone the school on 4990 1549.