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A national thank you card will be created by author and illustrator Charlie Mackesy together with schools across the country.

The card will be made to celebrate Thank You Day on Sunday 4 July.

Charlie is the author and illustrator of the book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse which uses drawings to explore kindness and understanding.

This card will feature illustrations of those characters with members of the community all together within a heart above the words 'Thank You'.

Every class in the country is being asked to take part by making their own large thank you poster including the names of some of the people they want to thank. These will then be added into the card and released the week before Thank you Day.

Charlie said: "The past eighteen months have been hard for so many people. One of the few positives is that it has brought many of our communities closer together. I hope Thank You Day provides us all a chance to get together and thank those who made the pandemic bearable."

Primary school teacher, Adam Willis, from County Armagh said: "As teachers, we've been so impressed and inspired by our pupils and so I would like to thank my class for being so positive and adaptable over the past year.

"I know that they each have so many people that they want to thank too so we're excited as a class and school to contribute to a really special thank you card."

The idea behind Thank You Day is to show appreciation to all those who have helped during the pandemic.

It is calling on people to get together safely with family and friends to celebrate, and organisers hope it will be "the UK's biggest ever thank you party".