AN enterprising youngster from South Petherton Infants School put pen to paper to raise money towards a new classroom.

Six-year-old Evie Nevitt raised £410 for the school after writing a letter to Crewkerne’s Waitrose store requesting for it to be included in the supermarket's Community Matters scheme.

The initiative allows customers to support monthly-nominated projects by placing a green token in one of three labelled boxes after passing through the checkout.

The more nominations a cause gets, the greater the share of a £1,000 donation they will receive.

The infants school was chosen for the scheme in April, with Evie’s letter, addressed to ‘Mr Waitrose’, placed above the collection box.

Thomas Berry, department manager of Waitrose Crewkerne, said: “We’ve never had anyone write to us like that before.

“We were really impressed by Evie’s handwriting and our customers loved it.”

Work on the new classroom, built as a mezzanine above the school hall, began two weeks ago and was partly funded by a grant from the Diocese of Bath and Wells.

Head teacher Lisa Sansom said: “We had no idea what Evie had done until the store called to say they had received the letter.

“It was lovely that she took it upon herself to do this and we are overwhelmed by the generosity of both the local community and Waitrose.”