CALNE schools have flooded the town's Rotary Club with items to pack in special boxes, which double as water purifiers for disaster-hit areas across the globe.

The Aquabox is a compact plastic box containing water purification tablets and a filter, which can be converted into a water purification kit.

Rotary club spokesman Ivor Watkins said the group is delighted with the schools' response.

"The Calne Rotary Club set out with a target of filling five Aquaboxes before the end of the Easter term, but it looks as though we now have 14," he said.

Pupils from Dunstan's Primary School filled seven boxes in 12 weeks after two students Sam Dyke, 11, and Niall Lucas, ten, from the school's council, wrote to Mr Watkins and invited him to talk to the school about the special boxes.

Headteacher Mary Pope said among the items the 400 school children brought in were clothes, soap, flannels, coloured crayons, paper, toothpaste and tooth brushes.

"The children would have carried on bringing in aid if I hadn't asked them to stop," she said.

Priestley Primary School has also been busy fundraising to fill their boxes with items intended to be useful to children and the school's most recent venture was a copper race.

Children from the school's nine classes competed to collect as many 1p and 2p coins as they could in three weeks. Each class then laid the coins next to each other on the floor of the school's dining room.

Deputy headteacher Tracey Dunn said there was a total of 300 metres of coins, which raised more than £200 for the Aquaboxes. The winning class Goldeneye had a line of coins measuring 61 metres in length.