A five-year-old girl has taken on a difficult challenge to raise money for her school.

Ella McDermott, who lives in Coggeshall with her family, attends St Peter’s Primary School in Coggeshall, whose history dates to 1811.

St Peter’s has invited each student to take part in this fundraising attempt.

As for Ella, beginning on May 23, she has had 23 days to raise £23.

To do this, she has decided to learn British Sign Language – more specifically, she intends to learn a new sign each day.

There is a personal connection here as Ella’s younger sister, Ava, four, is profoundly deaf.

Ella and Ava’s mum Victoria has a Level 1 British Sign Language certificate.

However, this challenge means that Ella will now know 23 new ways of communicating with her sister.

Victoria said this is something that her elder daughter has been striving towards.

She said: “We were trying to find something Ella could do every day for 23 days in a row.

“Ella’s always been keen to communicate with her sister – [Ava is] also autistic and non-verbal.

“She decided to learn a new sign a day to boost her communication with Ava.”

Meanwhile, Ella’s school friends have also taken on the challenge of learning sign language.

The friends have learned signs including ‘school’, ‘cake’, ‘home’ and ‘holiday’ and share videos between each other.

Victoria also highlighted the family’s day-to-day need to learn sign language although it is not something she would have thought about without having Ava.

Due to Ava’s lack of hearing, she requires lip reading to understand what is being said to her.

As a result, she struggled during the height of the pandemic while people wore masks covering their mouths.

Victoria added: “It makes you look at things in a slightly different way, having a child with needs like that.”

The school’s parent-teacher association, Friends Of St Peter’s School (FOSP) are behind the fundraising efforts.

This registered charity holds events for the school such as fairs, discos and fireworks displays.

Money raised by FOSP funds essential equipment for teaching and learning, as well as fun treats including a Father Christmas visit and farewell gifts for Year 6 leavers.

To find out more about Ella’s fundraising, you can view the family’s JustGiving page: www.justgiving.com/page/victoria-mcdermott-1684783000210?utm_term=Y6mDkwmk9