Children from a primary school in North End have been presented with an award by their local church to recognise the work they have done to support the community.
New Horizons Primary School, in Portsmouth, received their 'Thank You Award' from North End Baptist Church as a celebratory recognition of the school's presence across the local area.
Recently, children from year groups across the school, which is a member of the Thinking Schools Academy Trust, have helped run stalls at the church's Christmas Fayre to help manage their building.
They have also donated to the North End Pantry, a membership scheme for local people who need food in a time of need.
Hannah Powell, the Assistant Headteacher at the school, said the children have been encouraged by receiving the award and have learned about the importance of recognition.
She said: "At New Horizons Primary School, we teach our children about the importance of striving to be their best selves and playing a key role in making our world a better place. We believe that everyone can make a difference to other people, one person at a time, and the support for North End Baptist Church is a good example of making that happen.
"Our school community has been really encouraged to receive this award from our local church, and we have tied this into an opportunity to teach about the importance of recognition and how that can make people feel really happy."
The church and school have a collaboration that truly encapsulates the meaning of community, with volunteers from the church supporting the school with its religious education curriculum, along with other representatives from faiths across the community.
Earlier this year, New Horizons Primary School launched their 'Pupil Parliament', which has the objective of doing better for their neighbourhood.
Becki Bickerton, the Children, Youth and Families Worker at North End Baptist Church, said: “We recognised that New Horizons school as well as other schools, organisations and individual people that we partner with do so much within our local community and we wanted to celebrate this.
“We invited lots of different people and organisations ranging from local councillors, local care homes to local businesses and of course the local schools that we work with [to the awards].
“Our community is so important to us here at North End Baptist Church and very often lots of people sometimes get forgotten about or not recognised for the hard work that is done within the local community.
“For us as Christians, it is so important to show love and kindness to one another and for us ‘Love North End’ is one of the many ways we want to show our community this through our own actions.”
