POULTON pupils have been putting their heart and "sole" into Christmas giving.

For youngsters at Hodgson High School Technology College have been filling shoe boxes with gifts as part of a special scheme, dubbed Operation Christmas Child 2001.

The scheme encourages western European pupils to send Christmas presents to underprivileged children in eastern Europe.

Head teacher Bill Allison explained: "School students were asked to fill shoe boxes with presents for boys and girls of particular ages. Each shoe box could contain small toys or games, pens and pencils, sweets and toiletries and small items of clothing."

The boxes, which could also include photographs of the senders and Christmas cards, were then wrapped in Christmas paper and tagged to say what age group the gifts inside would suit.

Mr Allison said students had obviously taken the scheme to heart. "There are 40 forms in the school. Each form was asked to provide presents for just one box. However when the boxes were collected and counted there were 180! This means that each form packed at least four shoeboxes," he said.

And he thanked everyone involved in the scheme, adding: "Imagine those faces in eastern Europe on Christmas morning. Christmas is for giving and the school was very pleased to be able to do this.