Pupils at a school in Pembroke are donning masks and superhero capes in a fundraising drive for people affected by homelessness.

The fundraiser is part of the Virtues Project implemented at Victor Scott Primary School that aims to instil good character in its children.

Students throughout the school came up with several ideas, which included a proposal by a P5 class to raise money for homeless people.

They approached their teacher Lawriette Thomas with the idea and she tasked them with writing a proposal to Kennelyn Smith, the school’s principal.

Ms Thomas said: “I thought this would be a great opportunity for them to practise their writing skills and for them to recap on their persuasive writing.

“Then we revised it, added to it and edited it. The students were part of that process as well. We printed it off, they were very nervous but they presented it to the principal and she agreed.

“The theme of the project was Victor Scott School Helping Heroes. At Victor Scott we have been learning about virtues as part of our Virtues Project.

“We learnt about service in November and December. Then they planned a service project.”

She added: “Some students from the school went to the post office and sent letters out to people in the community; some did some work in the school; and my class decided that they wanted to help the homeless.

“They said it was getting cold and people would need blankets.

“They organised four grub days to take place in January and February, where all Victor Scott students can pay $2 to come to school in their own clothes.

“The students came up with a goal of $400 and so far we have $298. We still have two more grub days to do.”

Children throughout the school were invited to wear superhero-style capes and masks in line with the theme of the project.

The students decided they would like to donate the money they raise to Home, a charity supporting homeless people in Bermuda.

In 2022, the charity identified approximately 650 homeless people in Bermuda.

Naima Smith, a pupil in the class, came up with the initial idea to help homeless people.

She said: “I decided to help the homeless because if we did something else then the homeless would really be in need — they will be going through more.

“The money we raise can get them a lot of stuff and if we help them, then they will help us back.”

Aidan Famous, her classmate, is enjoying the experience of working to help those in need.

He said: “They already get food and water from the Salvation Army so maybe the money can get them toiletries, gift cards and maybe clothing, shoes and socks.”

Devohn David, another pupil in the class, added: “I enjoy that we get to help people who don’t have much and who some people don’t care about.

“I think that’s a good thing.

“I would like to do my best to do whatever we can to raise enough money for them.

“It makes me sad, I think everyone deserves a home and everyone deserves to be loved.”

Shomari Harvey, a classmate, loves helping people. He said: “It makes me feel sad that people don’t have places to live — everyone should have a home in Bermuda.“

Ms Smith, the school principal, said that academic performance was as important as character building at Victor Scott.

She said: “Our mission is to ensure that 100 per cent of our children meet or exceed academic and character goals.

“We had previously been using the Virtues Project as our guide and we said we really need to be intentional with how we are using it so we carved out instructional time twice a week for students to engage in the Virtues Project.

“My deputy principal and I selected some virtues we thought would have a lot of meaning to help to build character in our school.

“In the fall, we had service and unity, and the idea was for them to come up with a service project that would be beneficial to the school or the community.

“When the P5 class read their letter to me, I was flabbergasted. It was beyond what I had envisaged.”

Ms Smith added that the Virtues Project was producing good results for the wider school population.

She added: “In the six years I have been here, I have seen their character enhanced, they are learning how to get along with each other and how we can do things better.

“We can measure that too by the decrease in behaviour incident reports.“