Skipping school to enter the record books

THEY are record-breakers.

A total of 174 students and staff at Birkbeck Specialist Science and Maths College have skipped their way to a world record.

They were in step with schools in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire to beat the record of 18,000 people skipping simultaneously for three minutes.

Each participant could take a 10-second break if they got caught in the ropes. Teacher James Metheringham said pupils were sponsored and hoped to raise hundreds of pounds for a new music block. He said: "Their attitude was brilliant.

Leah Cox, 13, said: "It kept us fit. We are all pleased to have done it."

PE teacher Hollie Wells said confirmation of the school's entry in the Guinness Book of Records would not be until September.