WITH the festive season now well under way, many people will be ticking off the days by eating chocolates or opening the doors of advent calendars until Christmas Day.

For one Oxford school students and staff will instead be donating one item each day before handing over their haul of donations to two charities Oxford Food Bank and Stepping Stones on the 25th.

School children at St Gregory the Great School, Cricket Road began their ‘reverse advent calendar’ initiative on December 1, and so far the school has been bowled over by the generosity of its pupils.

Organiser of the project Fran Walsh said that amount of items donated had gone well above all expectations.

Fran Walsh said: “In my church I am the lay chaplain. This is something we have done before at the church and I thought it would be nice bringing it to the school as well.

“Each class has a grid and each has a box which is for different items and the idea is to encourage the pupils to think about those who are less fortunate than themselves.

“And to think about giving rather receiving.

“Different year groups are giving different items and the plan is that they start bringing in different items each day. And we have found that the students here bring in much more than we needed so it is really charitable of them.

“They are really passionate about giving and making sure that somebody benefits from this.

“It is a really nice feeling to see this.”

Each day different year groups at the school have a set item that is to be donated to a specific charity.

Years seven, eight and nine will be donating to the Oxford Food Bank and the items range from a tin of beans on day one of advent to a box of tea on day 17.

Years 10 and 11 will be donating their items to Stepping Stones – a charity that works with homeless people across Oxford.

Their items include chocolate on day two, shower gel on day eight and mascara on day 12.

At the end of Advent all of the goods will then be taken to Oxford Food Bank and Stepping Stones as a donation from the school and the students.

Previously the school had completed a fundraiser leading up to Christmas called ‘follow the star’ where pupils would follow clues to find the location of a star within the school, raising money for the Oxford Food Bank.

This year the school decided to change their fundraising and focus on encouraging students to think about giving rather than receiving.

St Gregory the Great School is a state-funded catholic school founded in 2004.