Students at a Dereham high school found an innovative way of raising money for typhoon-hit communities in the Philippines – by collecting 20p coins totalling £538.60.

Following their successful shoebox appeal, Neatherd High's International Prefects organised another fundraising initiative in aid of the survivors of the recent natural disaster.

They collected Smarties packets, emptied the sweets into jars, and distributed the empty tubes to all forms and offices at school. Then they encouraged pupils and staff to fill them with as many 20p coins as possible over a period of two weeks.

Sonia Walker, director of teaching and learning at the school, said: 'The pupils were really upset about the images we saw on the TV and wanted to do something to help

'As the shoebox collection was a bit more complex, something simple was needed, so we came up with the idea of the Smarties tubes.

'The grand total of our fundraising came to a staggering £538.60 which will help many families in the disaster zone. Thanks to everybody who contributed to this very worthy cause.'

The winning form which collected most 20p coins was 7CDA (Mr Daniels) – they collected £53. Runners up were 11JOC (Mr O'Connor) with £48.60 and 10CNO (Mrs Norwood) with £45.20.

As prizes for their fundraising efforts, the pupils in those three forms received all the Smarties from the tubes.

EDP readers raised £41,000 to help those affected by the Philippines disaster.