PUPILS at a Yate school which is set to officially close this year are being urged to donate their uniforms to charity.

Students at King Edmund Community School, in Sundridge Park, are being asked to hand in their sweatshirts, polo shirts, PE kits and fleeces which bear the school logo.

All uniforms collected will be sent to Romania for impoverished children to use.

Community officer at King Edmunds, Perry Poole, said the school would be open during the summer holidays so pupils could hand in their old uniforms.

She said: "I would like to send all our clean school uniform to a school in Romania, where pupils would be very proud to wear it."

The appeal comes as staff and students enter the last term at King Edmunds before the school closes and reopens as a Government-backed academy in September.

The Ridings’ Federation Yate International Academy will form a federation with The Ridings High School, in Winterbourne, which will become The Ridings' Federation Winterbourne International Academy.

Funding agreements to back the project have now been signed and the local governing bodies to represent each academy are being formed.

Roger Gilbert, current headteacher at King Edmunds who is due to become principal of the Yate academy, said parents should ensure they have new academy uniforms by the end of this academic year.

He said: "During the course of the year, all current students are eligible for vouchers towards their new school uniform and their PE kit.

"The uniform grant does cover the blazer, tie and all of the PE kit and parents will only be required to purchase white shirts and grey trousers for their children.

"As you can imagine, this will be quite a logistical exercise and we really appreciate parents’ co-operation in enabling us to get these uniforms to them before the end of the school year."

He said further updates on the new academy would be issued to parents during this term.