The impact of the war in Ukraine was brought home to a group of Yavneh College sixth formers over the past few days during their annual visit to Poland.

Staying in Krakow, pupils from the Hertfordshire school witnessed some of the refugees pouring into the city and were immediately moved to help.

Executive headteacher of Yavneh Spencer Lewis, who led the education trip, said: “Visiting concentration camps, sites of Jewish ghettos and places with hundreds of years of Jewish history is always incredibly moving and thought provoking but this time it was a little like being part of history in the making.”

Pupils woke up in the hotel to “see women and children with suitcases having arrived over night looking bewildered and totally exhausted, the children confused and unable to understand the language and unsure where they are.”

Students from the college he said, “went out and purchased chocolate and sweets for the kids and collected over £800 for the efforts being made by JRoots in supporting refugees from Ukraine.”

They help load vans with supplies bound for the West Ukrainian city of Lviv and “did whatever they could to help while we were there. On our return, having already collected over £1,200 by younger pupils, we are hoping that over Purim this figure will at least double.”

Never has the school’s motto, Olam Chesed Yibaneh, “A world built on kindness,” he said, “been more at the forefront of our minds”.