It looks like these children are shuffling a pile of waste paper.

But this ‘rubbish’ was worth money to charity.

Pupils at Matthew Arnold School, Cumnor, near Ox- ford, put all their energies into collecting used postage stamps to help the less fortunate in society in 1968.

The children were bitten by the stamp collecting bug when they saw a feature on the popular BBC TV children’s programme, Blue Peter.

The presenters encouraged youngsters from over the country to send in their used stamps to help fund a home for a homeless family.

They set their young viewers a staggering target of 12 million stamps.

Matthew Arnold School was one of many to make a substantial contribution to that appeal.

When the Blue Peter initiative ended, most schools stopped collecting, but not Matthew Arnold.

The child of one of the teaching staff had cystic fibrosis, and children, teachers and parents decided to continue collecting stamps in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Trust.

The trust had launched an appeal for £50,000.

Matthew Arnold School – and other well-wishers – faced a formidable task.

At prices at the time, to raise £50,000, between 60 and 100 million stamps would be needed.

We’re not sure how many stamps Matthew Arnold pupils collected for the trust, but they certainly played their part – every day, sackfuls of stamps would arrive at the school office.

We also don’t know the names of any of the children in the picture above?

Can you recognise any?

memory.lane@oxfordmail.co.uk