TWELVE staff at Maldon's Plume Academy got into the spirit of 'Movember' by growing moustaches – though every one of them was shaved off promptly on the last day of the month.

The plan to grow them came after staff discussed what to do to raise funds for the charity Kids Inspire, which the school works closely with. Kids Inspire provides many different kinds of support for disadvantaged children.

Rob Howlett, who helped organise the events, said: "We were all round a table trying to come up with ideas and we remembered the Movember challenge we had done about six years ago. This time we wanted to make it work to support Kids Inspire as we were quite limited in what we could do this year."

So the 12 men set about growing the facial fashion, though Rob hinted that the 'starting' picture taken on the third day of the challenge may indicate that some staff got a "sneaky head start".

Another staff member, Zoe Moss, felt that growing a moustache would not be her thing so decided to hold two bake sales instead, where students got the chance to buy homemade treats.

So far, the event has raised £1,100, with some donations still coming in. Anyone wanting to make a donation can do so on the Just Giving page here.

Mr Howlett added: "Some of us were more successful in growing moustaches than others, as you can see – but they all disappeared last night."