SCHOOLPUPILS were monkeying around to celebrate Chinese New Year on Friday (February 5).

That’s after Year 1 students at Toft Hill Primary School, near Bishop Auckland, got the chance to create their own paper monkey faces.

The activity was part of a programme organised by Durham University management students, Yini Jin, 23, and Yirong Yuan, 24, who answered a call from the school’s headteacher, Janice Stobbs.

After showing the pupils a video about the Monkey King, they showed the pupils how to fold paper to create the monkey’s face and then colour it in.

Miss Yuan said: “I think it’s a good thing to spread Chinese culture to children and we are doing monkeys because this year is the Year of the Monkey in China.”

Mrs Stobbs added: “I have been trying to work on diversity and how everybody is different and two students from Durham University replied to our plea.”