TWO young sisters put their half-term holiday to good use and raised a tremendous £260 for their own school, Amotherby Community Primary School.

India, eight, and Francesca Brown, five, who live in Great Habton, acted on a suggestion by their great-aunt Irene Kay, who lives in Manchester. The girls walked and cycled for five days to boost the school’s coffers.

Mum Georgina said: “I told them of the idea Irene had come up with and they got all excited. They said ‘does that mean we’re fundraising’ and couldn’t wait to get started.

“The girls have home-schooled but that has been fine because we’ve had a structure in place,” added Georgina, 31, who works in the A&E department at Scarborough Hospital.

“We’ve had a timetable to work on but, when it comes to school holidays, it was nice to have something else for them to do.

“We thought ‘what on earth are we going to do? We can’t do anything, we can’t go anywhere’. So this idea came in very handy and the girls have loved doing it.”

Each day of the week, India and Francesca walk and cycled under the supervision of mum and dad, Jason, 34, who is the manager at St Albans Sports Centre, at Ampleforth College.

With summer holidays not too far off, the girls are planning to continue their fundraising exploits.

“They were wanting to continue after their five days and do more on Saturday and Sunday,” added Georgina.

Amotherby Community Primary School head teacher Ruth Wanless was delighted with India and Francesca’s efforts, and said: “We’re ecstatic, the fact that they’ve raised £260 shows such determination and perseverance.

“It’s been such a difficult time for everyone, with home-schooling and parents working from home, and we’ve been very conscious of the well-being of our whole school community.

“We had a ‘well-being week’ during the last week up to half-term, where we had on-screen activities.

“And India and Francesca have continued that and given themselves a really big focus to go for,” she added.

“We are so proud of them.”