SCHOOLCHILDREN from East Linton Primary were over the moon when they arrived to class on Monday morning to discover the Prime Minister had sent them a thank you letter.

Primary four pupils at the school, on Walker Terrace, had recently learnt about children's rights in class and, having heard about the ongoing war in Ukraine, requested to use persuasive writing techniques they had been learning about in literacy to write personal letters to the Prime Minister.

To their surprise, Boris Johnson reached out to thank the children in a letter received by the school at the beginning of the week.

Donna Pentony, P4 teacher, said:"The children were upset by the news from Ukraine and wanted to use their voices as part of their children’s right’s project to speak up for the children in Ukraine.

"They decided to use their literacy skills to write persuasive letters to Mr Johnson.

"The children's letters were very emotional and heartfelt.

East Lothian Courier: A letter to the Prime Minister from P4 pupil Lyall

One of the letters sent to the Prime Minister, from P4 pupil Lyall

"We were delighted to have received a reply from the Prime Minister and that he took the time to listen to our strong arguments.”

The Prime Minister's letter read in part: "It was very good of you to get in touch and share your thoughts about the conflict in Ukraine.

"The PM has made it clear that this was an unprovoked, premeditated attack against a sovereign democracy state and he condemns the Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure."

East Linton Primary School holds a bronze Rights Respecting School award and is currently working towards the silver award.

Rights Respecting Schools is a Unicef UK initiative.

To be accredited, schools must demonstrate their adoption of an approach based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child across their policies and practices.