MORE than 200 Staindrop School pupils embraced traditional ‘British values’ today (December 18) by walking to church.

The Year 7 and Year 8 students made the journey to the village’s St Mary’s Church for their Christmas assembly where they were greeted by Reverend Ken Steventon.

The assembly included singing Christmas songs, music from the school band and a special performance from the cast of the school’s pantomime, Oliver.

The head boy and girl also gave readings which included one about the Christmas Day armistice truce when both British and German soldiers put down their weapons to play a game of football in 1914.

The event was part of a range of activities the pupils have been doing to learn about traditional British values.

Other activities have included experiencing democracy by creating a school parliament and learning about the constitutional monarchy in history lessons.

Headteacher, Andrew Flint, said: “The event today has been a huge success. We took all our younger students down to the local church and in collaboration with the vicar and our staff, we put on a performance which was traditional, to a degree religious, but also a celebration of diversity and respecting the fact that everybody has got a different perspective of what Christmas is like for them.

“Some messages are universal including peace and sharing and taking the opportunity to come together and to celebrate as a community is something which everybody can benefit from and something that we promoting today.”