HUNDREDS of pupils queued to guess a confectionary conundrum to help raise cash for Children in Need.

Pupils from Haughton Academy, Darlington, part of the Education Village Academy Trust, put their observation skills to the test to guess how many sweets were in the jars, in a bid to raise hundreds of pounds for the annual BBC charity extravaganza.

The sweet tasting challenge, devised by academy student ambassadors and peer mentors, under the guidance of family support co-ordinator Lianne Miller, was one of a number of fundraising ideas including a bake sale and non-uniform day.

“A group of pupils asked me if they could do something for Children in Need and we came up with the idea of guessing the number of sweets in a jar for 50p a go,” said Ms Miller. “Our pupils love to get involved and fundraising for an event like this really helps to foster community spirit within the academy and helps our young people help other young people all over the world.”

The overall annual fundraising event was organised by PE teacher Adele Norris with bake sale cakes supplied by staff and pupils and sweets donated by local supermarket Asda.

“Both staff and pupils enjoy taking part in our Children in Need events each year,” said Ms Norris.

“Last year we raised in excess of £700 so we are hoping to exceed that total this year with all the funds going to such a good cause.”

Pupil Kayla Lowes, 14, of Darlington added: “It is really important to help people that are less fortunate than we are.

“As a group we talked about a number of ways of fundraising for Children in Need and we all decided that a jar of sweets guessing challenge was best for us.

“Hopefully we will raise lots of money which will go towards helping the charity.”