GENEROUS pupils at Abbeyfield School have exceeded their own expectations with a donation to Doorway in Chippenham of almost 2,000 tins of food.

A team of students, led by sixth former Ben Purkis, have spent the last six weeks attending assemblies, tutor groups and put up posters to encourage food donations.

After weeks of work and collecting all the donations the pupils managed surpassed last year’s collection of 1,500 tins, which was itself a huge jump from 500 tins in 2013.

The donations were delivered on Thursday (Nov 26) to Doorway, a charity that aims to give the homeless a free hot meal twice a week.

Ben, who is student ambassador for homelessness and Doorway, said: “This is our third year and we have smashed the record for the third year in a row, I am very impressed.

“The pupils and staff have done fantastically well, some people have brought in 50 odd tins which is very impressive.

“At first I thought, ‘oh no I’m going to have to carry them all to the mini bus’ but I was over the moon.

“We had them all together and the lower sixth form became a food bank. I don’t think anyone has seen so many tins, I was so pleased, we were very very happy.”

Ben, who studies Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Economics, started working with Doorway through his youth group and has previously completed a Doorway sleep out night.

Lorna Lumb, Abbeyfield's school business manager, said: “Ben has worked really hard in cajoling people to bring thing in, we are really proud of him.”