Four teachers are preparing to push themselves to the limit by cycling from Land’s End to John o’Groats in just nine days to raise money for their school’s scholarship fund.

Fian Andrews, Richard Greasley, David Bryan and Lucy Yardley all work at Forest School in Snaresbrook.

They hope to raise £10,000 towards the school’s scholarship and bursary scheme and have been training hard ahead of the 1,031 mile trip which is planned for March.

In order to hit their nine-day target the team will cycle between 80-200 miles a day starting at dawn and riding for eight hours each day on routes that take in busy A roads and hilly tracks.

Mr Andrews, who teaches art at the school, said: “This is a challenge that I have wanted to do for many years since I first started cycling in my late teens.

“It has a kind of mythology in the cycling fraternity, almost like a pilgrimage.

“It’s been great to see how people react when I tell them what we’re doing.

“There’s a real range between them being very jealous to thinking we are completely mad.

“Training is going very well and we did our first ride over 100km out to Box Hill at the weekend.

“I was very pleased with how everybody performed; we all have a good level of base fitness now on which we can start to build strength.

"The last six weeks will be crucial and we need to not get ill or have any accidents.

"Richard gave us a little scare after getting in a tangle with a car after the ride on Sunday but thankfully it’s just bad bruising and a bit of road rash.”

The money raised will allow the private school to increase the amount of free places it offers to new pupils.

To sponsor the teachers visit www.justgiving.com/FSLEJOG13-Forest-School