Sudanese refugee children have been warmly welcomed by the Kilwinning community– and now the town’s academy plans to celebrate their presence in the area.

Kilwinning Academy plan to hold an ‘interdisciplinary learning’ event to celebrate the journey the refugees have been on.

Head teacher Tim Swan said: “I’m proud Kilwinning has welcomed and embraced them into our community.

“As a school we wanted to learn a lot more about the background and journey that they’ve come on and how we can help welcome them into our community.

“So the whole school is going to be involved in a project where we find out more about their journey and life stories and share it and how we can share some of our cultural points.

“Instead of it just being two or three departments, the whole school is taking a “world week” theme on with these boys being the heart of it.

“When it was shared to the staff at the in-service day obviously we were trying to show some of the images and some of the experiences that these boys had.

“We all see it on the telly but because we’re distant we don’t actually live it and I think what these boys came through and what we’re actually hearing through translators of their journey to come to this part of the world, whether they wanted to or not, not knowing where their families are or suddenly finding out they’ve still got some family but they can’t get to them.”

Mr Swan added that: “As far as we’re aware there’s been no incidents towards these boys or any kind of disruption.”

Council leader Joe Cullinane has previously told the Irvine Times: “I am proud of the way our communities have welcomed those fleeing war and persecution into our area.

“I have met with some of the families and their gratitude towards their neighbours and the council staff who support them is very evident.

“In particular I am proud at how quickly we acted to support unaccompanied children left in containers following the clearance of the ‘Jungle’ in Calais. Our swift action meant that we were the first local authority in Scotland to provide a home for children left in Calais.

“It has since been great to hear how well they are doing at school and in the community.”