CHERITON Fitzpaine Primary School pupil Lizzie Gordon (age 10) received a visit from her Member of Parliament on Monday, January 14.

Mel Stride, the MP for Central Devon, wanted to congratulate her personally on winning his 2018 Christmas card competition with a wonderful picture of a Christmas tree with presents.

This was undertaken at the school’s assembly where Mr Stride addressed the school, taking lots of questions including had he ever kissed the Prime Minister.

Mel sends more than 1,000 cards each year, including to organisations he’s visited during the previous 12 months, as well as friends, family and fellow MPs.

It was the sixth year Mel has opened the design his card competition to all 43 Primary Schools within his constituency, which was again sponsored by Ashburton-based business Glendinning. The winning design and two runners-up were featured on the card.

Mr Stride said: “It was very good to meet Lizzie and to thank her for her very creative drawing that made sending out so many Christmas Cards a lot more enjoyable in the writing of personal messages!”

During his visit Mel also complimented Headteacher Glynis Harris on improvements in their Key Stage Two results which were published in October.

The school, which was already performing above the national average in 2017 with 69 per cent of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics, increased to 88 per cent for 2018, making it one of the best performing schools within the Central Devon constituency.