Kintbury St Mary's Primary School's wild walk for Newbury Soup Kitchen

Pupils at a Kintbury primary school have been praised for their creativity and drive as they took on the latest fundraiser for Newbury Soup Kitchen, writes Paridhi Mathur.

From baking cakes and making bracelets to selling drinks and shaking money boxes, the year 6 class at Kintbury St Mary's have been doing everything they can to help raise money for the charity after it was chosen as their charity of the year.

Their fundraising efforts culminating in a sponsored 17km wild walk from Kintbury to Combe Gibbet and back on Saturday, July 9 and the youngsters smashed their target of £250 – with the total currently standing at £1,000.

Newbury Soup Kitchen thanked the young fundraisers and said: “You are all amazing, thank you so much. This money will help so many people locally. You are all champions with hearts of gold.”

The children took on the circular wild walk, which took in ancient heathland, woods and spectacular views, as well as brambles, nettles, thorns and some very steep hills, on one of the hottest days of the year

They had discussed a number of ideas for the fundraising but were "adamant that they should do something that challenged them and would meet their personal passion for the charity" and came up with the idea of the wild walk.

The pupils finished the walk in just over five hours; eating lots of sweets, laughing and joking all the way.

After the walk one parent said: "The best part was their solidarity with each other, helping each other to complete the wild walk."

A spokesperson for the school added: "We are very proud of the children for doing this in their own time and in the very hot weather to raise funds for this year's school charity, Newbury Soup Kitchen.

"In total for the year we have raised over £2,200 for this worthwhile local cause."

You can still add to the walkers' total by visiting their JustGiving page - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/kintburystmarysnewburysoupkitchen

The total from the walk will be added to the more than £900 already raised in school ahead of the walk.

The pupils are now planning to visit the charity to hand over the final cheque themselves.