These pictures show pupils achieving something wonderful, and because they were printed in black and white 20 years ago, it is the first time they have been seen in colour.

Hundreds of pupils at Ringwood Junior School and St James’s Primary in Pokesdown took part in the national Wordsworth recital on March 22, 2004.

Reading aloud William Wordsworth’s famous poem Daffodils, which opens with the words “I wandered lonely as a cloud”, the aim of the 250,000 voices at the 1,100 schools taking part nationally was to raise money for the charity Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Bournemouth Echo: St James PrimaryAll of the children and adults taking part in the mass read-out were synchronised to start at 9.15am.

Money raised from the event helped fund nurses to care for terminally ill cancer patients in their own homes