A WREXHAM primary school is supporting the campaign to save Australia's wildlife from the devastating bush fires that have ravaged the country.

Returning to school after Christmas, pupils at St Giles Primary generated a conversation with their teacher about the fires and how upset they were at the news reports how they are affecting animals.

After a pupil said: "I wish we could do something to help", teacher Andrea Weeks thought about the comment over dinner and spoke to the class in the afternoon - asking for their ideas about how they would like to help.

This led to a Pupil Influenced Planning Topic, which the children entitled Aiding Australian Animals.

The children researched charities that were helping in Australia and decided to support WIRES: Wildlife Rescue, which is providing medical aid and homes to injured animals and is raising funds to restore habitats.

The children decided to host a non-school uniform day to raise the funds.

In groups they prepared powerpoint presentations and joined together as a class to make a video, to tell the rest of the school what they were doing and the reasons why.

During research the children discovered that the charity was asking people to 'Protect A Koala'.

The Leader:

One of the pupils, Molly Harper, came up with the idea of asking the school staff to donate money to enable the school to adopt its own koala.

The staff generously donated and have raised enough money to adopt three koalas for the school.

The children have now decided to launch a whole school competition - Name The Koalas and pupils from Nursery through to Year 6 donated generously and the school have raised an amazing £470 to date.

One of the pupils, Oskar Slawski even designed his own t-shirt to generate awareness.

The Leader:

Mrs Weeks said: "I am extremely proud of the pupils' empathy and willingness to help others.

"We are now going to continue using Australian animals as a theme for our work, as it has gained so much of the pupils interest and has motivated them to produce some wonderful work."