THE harvest season is extending into Christmas for pupils from a Bishop Auckland school who are sharing their celebrations with children across the world.

Cockton Hill Primary youngsters have collected 57 boxes of presents to send to needy boys and girls in Eastern Europe and Asia.

They have saved up sweets, toiletries,toothpasteand brushes, jewellery, gloves, hats and scarves, which have been packed in outsized shoe boxes ready for collection by the national charity Samaritans Purse.

Each parcel also includes a photograph of pupils taken at the school.

A moving video of the youngsters who will receive the gifts has already been shown at Cockton Hill. Headteacher Fran Thirling said: "There was silence in the hall as we were watching it. It was very poignant.

"Our pupils quickly realised how fortunate they are. The children they saw were very poor. They literally had nothing but they clothes they stood up in."