The sad faces of children terrified by community crime were smiling this week as they were rewarded for their peace campaign.

Pupils at St Andrew's School, Lustre Street, contacted the Keighley News in February voicing their fears following the recent murders in the town. The 24 ten and 11 year-olds also wrote to police bosses and MP Ann Cryer, calling for a clampdown on drug dealing and other anti-social behaviour.

This week they were each presented with a special certificate by Millie Clare, an education advisor for Education Bradford.

Mrs Clare said: "The certificates were issued on behalf of Drugswatch, which is a multi-agency approach, and they aren't given out lightly. I felt they very much deserved the certificates.

"The children raised widespread awareness of the problems in Keighley and appealed to everyone to help stop them.

"As part of my work with Bradford Schools' Drug Prevention Initiative I hope to work with the school next year to set up a Drugs charter.

"This will involve working with the whole school to include drugs education as part of the curriculum. It involves staff training and parents are also drawn in."

Where once the pupils were scared to show their faces for a Keighley News picture and hid themselves with tear stained masks, teacher Shirley Davids says they have grown in confidence.

She explained: "This work has helped them to come to terms with the situation but also demonstrated that people actually take notice of them.

"They are a lot more confident now and they are pleased that they found a voice and that it was heard.

"The whole thing really spiralled after it was featured in the Keighley News, and everybody was interested in what they had to say. We have since worked on many drug related issues and PC Dave Brown has really done a lot of work with them in the classroom.

"A lot of good has come from their letters and these certificates are really the icing on the cake. They are so excited about it and so pleased that what they said was recognised."