Parents at Ashley Down Brunel Field Primary School have raised £600 for Save the Children’s Syria Crisis Appeal through a family disco.

The fundraising efforts were in response to the growing number of children affected by the ongoing conflict in Syria and are now either refugees seeking help across Europe or remain perilously within the country itself.

The disco was organised by the school’s PSA and took place at Gloucestershire County Cricket Ground, which is located near to the school, in October. Fifty family tickets were sold, which resulted in more than 200 people attending the event.

Marieke Strange, chair of the Brunel Field PSA, said: “Parents and children alike are deeply concerned by the refugee crisis as it continues to escalate and were very keen to do something to support young refugees in particular.

“We thought about a goods collection but Bristol’s population has already responded amazingly to these calls for aid and the collection points remain full, so we decided to make existing plans for a family disco into a fundraising effort.

“Save the Children has worked tirelessly across the most severely effected areas both around Syria and within to support children and young people and so it seemed like the right thing to do to help in this small way.”

More than 10,000 children have been already been killed as part of the conflict and Save the Children estimates that 5.6 million children need humanitarian aid.

Helena Wiltshire, a spokesperson for Save the Children, says:

“The outpouring of support from the British public has been outstanding and the Ashley Down Primary Brunel Field School Disco is further proof just how much everybody wants to support the child refugee crisis.

“So far this year, more than 380,000 desperate people made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea – tragically 2,850 people have died or are missing and nearly 9,000 children have arrived in Europe without any parents or family at all.

“This is unacceptable, no child should be left behind. Thank you to all those who bought tickets for the disco or donated their money and a wider thank you to the people of Bristol who have shown such generosity and eagerness to support child refugees.

“Activities like this will help to keep the public’s attention focused – and in turn European leaders accountable – on one of the biggest refugee crisis of our time.”

For more information about the Syria Crisis Appeal visit: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/about-us/emergencies/syria-appeal

For more information about Ashley Down PSA visit: http://www.ashleydownpsa.org.uk