THE winner of an unusual charity event being held at a Teesside school was announced yesterday.

For three nights, nine teachers from Yarm Preparatory School took part in an I'm A Teacher - Get Me Out Of Here challenge. They had volunteered to be locked in the school in an attempt to raise money for five local charities and were set challenges by headteacher Gillian Taylor.

Three teachers were evicted on Wednesday after taking part in a mental challenge, and three more were evicted on Thursday after receiving the fewest scores in a physical challenge. The final three, Matthew Sellers, Ian McKay and Phil Hardy, yesterday morning faced their final challenge, which required them to try and identify different foods including pickled walnuts and pig's tails.

Mr Sellers received the highest number of points and went on to win the event.

He said: "I am pleased I won, but I would have liked Mr McKay to have won as he organised the whole thing.

"It was a lot of fun and we were pretty tired at the end of it.

The first night was great, we were tired on the second, and the third night was pretty quiet. I am pleased that we managed to raise so much money for charity."

Mrs Taylor said: "The whole thing has been brilliant and was the first time we have ever done anything like this.

"The whole event received a lot of support from parents, children and teachers and raised a lot of money."

In total £2,500 was raised for Butterwick Hospice, RNLI, Teesside Hospice, Multiple Sclerosis and Macmillan Cancer Care.

Children from the school will present each charity with a cheque at a later date.