ST George and his dragon were among the pupils who turned up for their lessons at Wanborough Primary School yesterday.

The youngsters had been asked to dress in red and white clothes to mark the patron saint's special day. But some decided to take things a little further by dressing up as the hero himself.

"We wanted to make the children aware of the importance of St George and who he was," said acting deputy head Amanda Willis.

"The younger pupils enjoyed the story of the dragon and the older ones learned about saints and why he became one."

St George was a Roman soldier who was captured and tortured for his faith, but he never gave it up. For this he was made a saint.

The idea of dressing up came when one of the children took in a newspaper cutting of a story about children at a school in Wales who did the same on St David's Day. In the run up to the event older pupils designed and painted posters to explain the story of St George and the Dragon to their younger schoolmates.