Cockermouth School pupils welcomed children from Chernobyl with an art exhibition and art lesson on July 4.

North West Cumbria Friends of Chernobyl's Children had twelve children staying with host families in and around the Cockermouth area.

The children, their translators and host family members visited the A Level and GCSE art exhibition in the eco centre, where year 12 art students guided them around the exhibits. They then had the opportunity to produce their own piece of art in response to the themes and ideas that they saw.

The art lesson was introduced to the children by year 12 student, Sofya Koryagina, who speaks Russian and was able to assist the translators in explaining the activity and answer any questions.

Five of the host families have children that attends Cockermouth School.

Melanie Wheatley, one of the host family parents, said: “The children are delighted to be able to come into school, it is lovely for them to see where our children go to school, they have been really looking forward to it.”

Mrs Tinkler, head of art at Cockermouth School said: "Cockermouth School's annual summer art exhibition featured an enormous amount of talent from both A Level and GCSE students.

"A variety of mediums covered the disciplines of fine art painting and drawing, printmaking, ceramics, fashion and textiles, illustration, graphics, animation and photography.

"Work from all of our year 13 students has been selected and will feature in The Arts Society Cumbria, A level exhibition held at Theatre by The Lake from July 17 to September 4. Followed by a GCSE exhibition from September 7 to October 8, which will show work from our year 11 art and graphic students."