HUNDREDS of children were having fun in the sun yesterday, creating dens to raise awareness for a good cause.

St Katharine’s Primary School in Bournemouth raised hundreds of pounds by taking part in Den Day, with nearly 500 students using materials such as cardboard, tarpaulin and wood to construct their dens.

With temperatures in the high-20s, the students brought their favourite teddies to school and their building materials to build the dens in teams of four or five.

The students were asked to bring in £1 each and put up and knock down their dens within the space of three hours yesterday morning.

The activity aimed to improve the students’ collaboration and problem solving skills, as the construction proved quite tricky for some students, making teamwork vital.

One of the school’s teachers, Rachel Dickinson, organised the event. She said: “We figured it would be a great day because it’s such fun for the children to come out and show their team building skills.”

When asked if the children had enjoyed the day, Mrs Dickinson said: “They have. We are quite an active school anyway. We’ve got quite a lot of focus on doing active and collaborative learning. It’s enjoyable in the summer term to do some powerful learning outside.”

Year 5 student Thomas Massie said the day was “really enjoyable”, adding that the students worked together “very well”.

Another Year 5 student Holly Naysmith said: “It’s been really fun making dens with my friends, as even though it did go wrong we had to be resilient and do things again as a team.

“I’ve learnt that you need to try lots of different ways to make it.

“Our first idea didn’t work and then we had to keep trying and trying again to make a den and eventually some friends of mine offered to help me.”

Den Day is a national campaign run by Save the Children and the school raised more than £500 in total.

The funds are for the charity’s ongoing campaign to help children overseas who have no homes due to natural disasters or conflict.

Holly said raising money to support children in developing countries was a “really nice idea”.

She added: “They might not be as lucky as we are to live in such a nice country, they might be going through some tough times and then they can get some stuff to help them.”