Last year KS1 young leaders from Bexhill Academy, Sunderland brought their school community together to support Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen during the Christmas period.

As part of the Archbishops’ Young Leaders Award all pupils are challenged to take action to bring positive change to their local community and ‘be the change they want to see’.

The KS1 pupils decided to contact the community kitchen and ask if they could help or support them in any way in the run up to Christmas. They found out that the kitchen were running an edible shoebox appeal and they decided to get involved.

The young leaders collected and organised donations from the wider school community and created several shoeboxes full of Christmas treats to donate and share some joy with the homeless people supported by the community kitchen.

The pupils gave up their break times for a number of weeks to sort donations and put their boxes together and they felt proud that they were able to help others less fortunate than themselves.

These pupils showed great kindness and compassion for others as well as skills in organising and communicating with others to achieve their project and bring hope to their community.

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