YOUNGSTERS have been overwhelmed with postcards from around the world after asking friends and family to send them from wherever they are.

Children from nursery and reception classes at Le Cateau Primary School in Catterick Garrison had been reading Meerkat Mail by Emily Gravett in class with teacher Sophie Bell, about a meerkat who leaves home and sends his family a postcard from every country he visits.

Ms Bell said as their own project, children asked family and friends who live abroad to send them postcards to see how far and wide their connections spread.

“We have been amazed at the response – we have had hundreds of postcards from all over the world including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Namibia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Iceland, Sweden, Germany and Cyprus," she added.

“We do have a lot of military families at the school, but not all of the exotic locations are down to that – parents have asked friends to spread the word too, and one father even asked people he was gaming with on his Playstation, so we have had a real mix.”

Each postcard has given the children details about the country it is from, and the class enjoy reading the post together.

“It is really exciting every day when the post arrives from the school office. We have hung the postcards up on washing lines in the classroom so parents can see too, it has been a really fun experience for the children to learn about different countries.”