Parents and students at St Olave's Grammar School, Goddington Lane, Orpington, dug deep earlier this term to raise more than £8,000 for charity.

The school held its annual festival week a group of events including a cabaret, games for children in the lower school and own-clothes days to encourage everyone involved with the school to donate some cash for the pupils' chosen good causes.

This amount is the most the school has raised since festival week was scaled down five years ago, due to the event taking up too much lesson time.

Every year, the school chooses one local charity and one international cause to donate money to.

Festival week is carried out by sixth formers who wish to choose a charity they believe the money should go.

The students are then given three minutes of a school assembly to convince pupils their charity is the most deserving one. The whole school then votes on who the money should go to.

The two recipiants this year are the Whitechapel Mission a charity which has been helping the poor and homeless in London for 130 years and Sight Savers International, which aims to combat loss of sight in the developing world.

Year 13 pupil Lucy Whelan chose Sight Savers International for her presentation as she felt it was a cause with the right priorities.

She said: "I decided on this charity because I trust the money raised will go on what the charity aims to do rather than spending large amounts of money on campaigning and advertising.

"Also I think what the charity is trying to achieve is fantastic. Combating blindness in the Third World will mean more people will be able to work and provide for their families."

Lucy is thrilled at the amount of money raised. She said: "Everyone from Year 7 students to the teachers got involved, which encourages everyone associated with the school to donate money."

Tony Miller, director of the Whitechapel Mission, said: "I am delighted Saint Olave's chose us.

"It's great they are aware of their local community's needs as much as international needs.

"The money will go towards a new Lifeskills Centre, a drop-in service which will teach people life skills others take for granted, such as emotional literacy and cooking."