School pupils will give back to the community in December as a city school prepares to send hundreds of Christmas cards to people in the community. 

Trinity School in Carlisle has been writing and sending Christmas cards to people in care homes, hospital, and those who might be lonely since 2020.

It initially started as a project for one tutor group but soon spread to become a whole school project.

Teacher Alison Richardson, who leads the Christmas card project, said: "Initially I started it as a project with my tutor group, I got them in form times writing Christmas cards.

"It's grown over the years as more people wanted to be involved and so now it's a whole school thing."

Trinity School typically sends out between 200 and 400 cards to people in the community.

Many of these cards are donated by people who have some left over from previous years which then get bundled up and handed out to the students to complete in form time. 

"We advertise and then people get in touch to tell us how many residents they have got and how many Christmas cards they'd like, then we send them out from here."

It has been received positively by both those receiving the cards as well as the pupils who write them. 

People put forward their neighbours who they think might appreciate receiving a card, care homes get in touch about residents being sent one, and everyone is 'really grateful'.

But, it's also beneficial for students too.

"They enjoy feeling like they're able to contribute to the community in some little way and they're able to help make somebody's Christmas better."

If you have any blank Christmas cards that you can donate to Trinity School or if you know somebody who would like to receive one of the cards, get in touch with Alison Richardson by emailing ari@trinity.cumbria.sch.uk.