Youngsters from across the Forest of Dean will be able to say final farewell to the three Fuller children at a public memorial service.

Relatives and staff at Lakers School, where Sam Fuller was a pupil, have joined forces to honour the three children tragically killed in July.

A special service will be held in the school grounds to celebrate the lives of Sam, 12, Becca, aged eight, and Charlie, seven, on Sunday October 28.

Afterwards there is expected to be a balloon release so children can send their own personal messages.

The deaths of the three children and their father Ceri, 35, in a Shropshire quarry rocked the Forest.

Shrines appeared at local schools as teachers supported classmates of the three children, who lived with their parents in Milkwall.

Relatives wanted a small private funeral but promised a public memorial at a later date.

Granddad Ron Tocknell from Lydney said: "We would like to thank the whole Forest community for the support we have received, not only from established friends but also from strangers who have, nevertheless, sent out their thoughts and prayers to us.

"The memorial service is primarily for the children who knew Sam, Becca and Charie.

"They had all attended both Blakeney School and St John's School in Coleford and Sam had also attended Lakers School in Coleford.

"Consequently, they had a lot of friends. We would like to thank their many friends for helping to make their brief lives so joyful."

Mr Tocknell is the father of the children's mother Ruth.

He added: "They are so sadly missed. They shall remain forever in our hearts.

"However, this memorial is also about expressing our gratitude for the privilege of having known them. Personally, I feel honoured that these wonderful children called me 'Granddad'.

"Thank you Sam, thank you Becca and thank you Charlie for the innocent wisdom, the love, the laughter and the endless drawings of superheroes, princesses, sunflowers and rainbows."

Donations from the 11am memorial service will be made to Winston's Wish and MIND.

The bodies of the children and Mr Fuller were found at Pontesbury Hill in Shropshire days after they went missing from the family home in Milkwall on July 12.

The Shropshire coroner's office said no date had been set for the inquest.