A group of teachers have set aside the staff room banter for one lunch hour a week and taken up a new hobby to raise money for charity.

Staff from the Glade Primary School in Brandon have dedicated their time to knitting a blanket made of individual squares which they hope will raise as much money as possible in aid of leukaemia and lymphoma research.

Dubbed Woolly Wednesdays, the group was formed following the death of a friend of one of the school’s newly appointed teachers who decided to do something to raise money in her memory.

The pair met through the online site Babycentre and formed a close bond. Angela Spence, from Snodland in Kent, however sadly died in August this year, nine months after her leukaemia diagnosis.

The teachers now hope to piece all the squares together to form two blankets, one which they will auction off and the other which they will give to the family Angela left behind.

Kathy Harris, a teaching assistant at the school for 10 years, said: “There are all sorts of shapes and sizes and the more experienced have put butterflies and hearts in the middle and that sort of thing and we’re trying to use as many of the squares as possible.

“It’s brought us all together as well and we’ve got quite excited about it and my husband said it’s the first time he’s seen me sat down for any length of time.

“It’s brought us together as staff which is really nice.”