The seven students are members of the Amnesty International Group at St Aidan's and want to raise awareness for prisoners of conscience and unlawful executions in China.

We chose to do a sponsored silence, because we are appalled by the fact that many people around the world are being silenced by their governments.

It is also part of our campaign against the unlawful executions by China.

Over 8000 people are executed every year by this years Olympic Games host. That's 22 people a day and we don't want to accept this!

So we spent an entire school day – nearly seven hours – saying absolutely nothing. It was difficult but we managed and it was an astonishing experience.

Not being able to properly socialise with our friends was frustrating. It gave us an insight into how people must feel not being able to speak freely.

We conducted the sponsored silence in order to raise money to send letters to help the prisoners. A number of pupils send letters every week and a lot of money is needed for postage.

We try to help people like Shi Tao, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence for sending an E-Mail containing information on instructions to journalists by the Chinese government.

We would like to thank all of those who donated money, even if only coppers. Every little helps us contribute to the well-being of prisoner of conscience.

Furthermore we would like to invite everybody, who wants to make a difference to come to our meetings on Friday lunchtimes!