A performing arts school's uplifting cover of Heal the World, to help raise money for the NHS, has smashed its £1,000 target.

School of Panto in Kings Hill had to postpone its spring show due to the pandemic and so decided to put on a performance remotely instead.

The company director, Chris Park, came up with the idea for students to record sections of the Band Aid classic, Heal the World, adapting the lyrics to fit with the current situation.

Lots of children got involved, sending Mr Park voice notes of them singing along with videos miming the words, clapping for the NHS and colouring in School of Panto posters. Musical director Katie Tunstin then edited these together to create the final product.

The group of singers has now raised more than £1,500 in just two days, but are hoping to get even more donations if possible.

Mr Park said: "With 180 pupils disappointed that their show had been postponed and in some cases, not fully understanding the reasons behind the current situation, I, along with our musical director Katie Tustin, decided to record a song with the pupils remotely and edit this together in our home studios.

"The difficulty in getting the vocals to line up, particularly on the chorus, was a challenge to say the least. Many hours of hard work went into this finishing product, and the backing track was created from scratch.

"The rest of the school took part by creating a School of Panto 'stay home, save lives' poster. This footage was also used in the making of the video and we wanted to include as many of our pupils as physically possible."

He added: "Our NHS is unbelievable, far bigger and better than anything we could ever do. But we wanted to do something positive for our pupils and we wanted to make them feel like they had done something positive in return."

If you would like to donate, click here.

Read more: All the latest news from Malling