Staff and pupils at St John’s Catholic Comprehensive School worked up a sweat to help raise money for charity.

Dozens took part in a static bicycle challenge, between them covering 565 miles – a mile for every serviceman on the Windmill Hill Memorial in Gravesend.

The challenge comes a month before a team of 16 sixth-formers and eight teachers cycle from the memorial to Ypres in Belgium in aid of the Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes.

History teacher Colm Murphy, who is leading the project, said: “We travel from Gravesend to Dover on March 24, get the ferry to Dunkirk, stay overnight, and on Good Friday morning we travel over to Ypres in Belgium.

“There will be a reception and a greeting party with the Mayor of Ypres, and hopefully the Mayor of Gravesham and head of St John’s School.

“On the Saturday, we should do a battlefield tour and on Sunday we come back.”

“We travel from Gravesend to Dover on March 24, get the ferry to Dunkirk, stay overnight, and on Good Friday morning we travel over to Ypres in Belgium. - History teacher Colm Murphy outlines the itinerary.

The trip will cost the school about £4,000, which Mr Murphy hopes will be raised by the static cycle challenge, a non-uniform day and cake sales.

Local businesses are also invited to sponsor the pupils and staff for their efforts; £200 for a pupil, £250 for a member of staff, or £300 for the deputy head.

It follows the launch of their second First World War memorial book in November, commemorating the impact of the war in Gravesend.

Pupils from the school’s history society researched every war memorial in Gravesham with the aim of documenting the lives of servicemen from the borough killed during the First World War. Their work is being collated into a series of six volumes called The Valour Still Shines, and the second has now sold over 100 copies.

Anyone who can help fund the journey to Ypres should visit the website crowdfunding.justgiving.com/Cycle-to-the-Menin-Gate.