A NINE-YEAR-OLD girl from Castle Hill Primary School in Rooksdown raised funds for her school after coming up with a unique idea over the Easter holidays.

Ruby Heywood, who lives in Rooskdwon, decided to draw pictures of animals and asked her friends and family if they would like to purchase them for a minimum of £1.

After working hard for two weeks, she raised an impressive £76, which she proudly donated to her school.

Her mum, Zena Heywood, said Ruby has always been interested in drawing after taking inspiration from Draw with Rob, a series of books by award-winning author Rob Biddulph.

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Zena said: "One day she said 'Mommy, I'd like to raise money for the school and I think I'm going to do some drawings'. She loves animals and so she said she could do animals, but no birds."

The mum added that the school headteacher John DF Martin was so proud to hear about the fundraiser and talked about it in the assembly.

"They've had a little meeting already with the student centre to say that they're going to use it to buy a piece of equipment for the school," Zena added.

Ruby, a Year 4 pupil, is planning to carry on with her drawings.

"I'm very proud of her because I thought she might just do a couple and then the interest may wear off," Zena said.

"But she did it every day. In the end, she did 21 drawings and she covered 30 animals.

"Every day she was up drawing in her bedroom to make sure that everybody got what they ordered. She really pushed herself and drew elephants, foxes, Easter bunny, giraffe, hedgehog, you name it. She didn't say anytime I can't do that."