School staff scale three peaks
STAFF from a Burbage school have raised nearly £3,500 for charity by climbing the tallest three mountains in England, Scotland and Wales.
Ten colleagues from Sketchley Hill Primary School tackled the National Three Peaks Challenge over the weekend.
They attempted to scale Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England and Snowdon in Wales in just 24 hours.
The gruelling challenge involved climbing more than 3,000 metres, walking at least 25 miles and driving 1,000 miles with very little sleep.
But bad weather and sheer exhaustion hampered the challenge for many.
Organiser and Year 6 teacher Penny Masser ran from the summit of Snowdon to the base and completed the mammoth task with one minute to spare.
Support staff Carole Boulton and Bekkie Adams finished in 24 hours and 30 minutes.
The remaining seven walkers finished in an impressive 26 hours and were all back in time to teach their classes on Monday morning.
Mrs Masser said: “We did it! What a weekend.
“Every mountain presented different challenges: Ben Nevis was really humid at the base and a long slog to the top. Scafell was very steep, but everyone coped well with the ascent in the dark.
“On Snowdon we had dramatic weather changes from sun and blue sky at the base, to fog, rain and really poor visibility at the top.
“We had to get back to the base of Snowdon by 4pm to meet the 24 hour target - we knew this would be a big ask for everyone and each person had a different goal - finishing the three peaks was a massive accomplishment in itself.
“To allow for this we split into smaller groups for Snowdon and we kept in touch with each other by radio contact.”
The group dwarfed their £1,000 target and raised nearly £3,500 for The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) charity, which supports young people in “self-improvement” challenges.
Mrs Masser added: “Everyone is delighted, we raised well in excess of our £1,000 target.
“The support from friends, families, colleagues, parents and pupils of the school has been amazing.
“Our drivers were amazing too - they drove a total of 1,054 miles and provided food and hot drinks at the end of each climb, helped with navigation and gave loads of moral support.
“I think we’ve proved that at Sketchley we’re a great team of staff.”
The group consisted of teachers Mrs Masser, Debbie Moore and foundation stage teacher Rachel Stocks and assistant Megan Padbury, deputy head Jason Cader, support staff Carole Boulton, Bekkie Adams, Carly West and Sharon Ames, and admin worker Julie Mason.
Headteacher Philippa Campbell and teacher James Tarrant drove, with friends Andy Mason and Gary White in a back-up vehicle.