Education: Extra curriculum: Charitable children

SECONDARY schools may be short of cash but it didn't stop them contributing around pounds 15m to charity in the last financial year, according to a survey by the Secondary Heads Association.

Most of the money was raised by children. Only 8 per cent was contributed by parent teacher associations, which would have been busy flogging themselves to raise money for the so-called 'extras' in schools. John Sutton, general secretary of the SHA, says: 'We have a caring and thoughtful generation of young people in our schools, deeply committed to helping others less fortunate than themselves.'