Each one of the 40 tutor groups at Ramsey Grammar School has chosen a good cause to support as part of the school’s ’community Christmas challenge’.

The charities include: Rebecca House, Poppy Appeal, Team Trees, Hospice, Isle of Man Guide Dogs, the Foodbank, Manx SPCA, Alder Hey Children’s hospital, Cancer Research, Manx Eating Disorder Support, Shoebox Appeal, Live at Home, Brookfield Nursing Home, Junior Achievement and Autism Initiatives.

Some tutor groups had even chosen more than one charity.

Headteacher Annette Baker said: ’I am extremely proud that the students of our school have chosen to engage with projects aimed at helping people in the local and wider communities in the run-up to Christmas.

’This is a difficult time for every single one of us as we continue to cope with the challenges of a global pandemic.’

She added that it was a tribute to the school’s ethos that the students and staff had responded to these challenges by ’thinking of people other than themselves who are finding the current circumstances difficult to bear’.