Pupils grow produce for charity

PUPILS from a Nailsea education centre have been gardening and dressing up to raise money for charity.

Youngsters from the Oak Hill Centre paid to attend classes wearing their normal clothes and also paid extra to don hair gel, jewellery and make-up.

Staff also joined in with the festivities and dressed up as the opposite sex and more than �100 was raised on the day for Comic Relief.

The centre is also about to launch a new Youth Enterprise Programme which will involve students growing plants, flowers and vegetables to sell.

Head of the centre, Kaye Palmer-Green said: “Students have been planting and growing flowers and vegetables which will be advertised and sold locally to raise money for charity and equipment for Oak Hill.

“The initiative has proved so successful, that students have volunteered to stay behind after school to help dig, build, rake and plant. Their enthusiasm has prompted an after-school gardening club which is already proving very popular.”

Oak Hill caters for 20 pupils aged nine-14 who are severely disaffected with education and who are at risk or who have been permanently excluded from mainstream schooling.

Mrs Palmer-Green added: “These fund-raising activities have really caught the imagination of the students and should go a long way in helping to dispel the negativity surrounding our young people.”