TEACHERS, staff members, friends and parents of Gargrave CoE Primary School are hoping to raise £20,000 by completing the gruelling Great Northern Mud Run at Bramham Park next month.

The 13 ‘Gargrave Warriors’, made up of seven members of staff, including headteacher, Sarah Peel, and six friends of the school, will be amongst hundreds pushing themselves to the physical and mental limit on June 22 in the Total Warrior event.

Not for the faint hearted, the course is 12 km long and will see competitors tackling 25 obstacles, including the ‘Human BBQ’ ‘The Plunge’ and ‘The Shocker’.

Team members, who have been busy training for weeks, have set themselves the hard task of raising the £20,000 the school needs to buy much needed new technology equipment, computer tablets and interactive whiteboards.

Letters have gone out to to parents, friends and businesses, a charity Crowdfunding page, has been set up, and the school has made a U-tube video, featuring teachers, pupils and friends, to explain why the money is so important.

In the video, headteacher, Sarah Peel, says the school’s motivated pupils are losing out due to ‘very, very slow’ computers, while the children themselves say there are not enough computers to go around, and some are broken.

A spokesman for the warriors, said: “As with all schools, Gargrave Primary School is facing challenging financial times, with further budget cuts on the horizon. This inevitably means budgets are squeezed more than ever and resources are not being updated.

“Achieving our target will enable our pupils to have greater access to technology and up-to-date programmes. Studies have found that when technology is integrated into lessons, students find learning more enjoyable and fun. This leads to more active participation in the learning process, which in turn increases knowledge retention.”

Anyone who would like to support the school can donate at: https://rocket.fund/p/GargraveWarriors/The team can also be followed on Twitter at: @Gargravewarrior.