STUDENTS are raising funds for a project to preserve their school days for posterity.

Twenty pupils from Northallerton College are working on a yearbook.

The publication will be presented to every student who finishes this year. It will be accompanied by a CD containing pictures of the classmates.

The students need to raise £2,000 to fund the project, and are asking Northallerton businesses for help.

They have collected a mountain of goods to sell at a tombola, including toys, beauty products, cinema tickets, a skateboard and the promise of a meal for two at a restaurant.

Local businesses that have helped include Toni and Guy, Grovers, Mitchells Newsagents, Merryweathers Beauty Salon, Boyes, The Bodyshop, Popcorn skateboard shop, The Ritz Cinema, in Thirsk, and The Shorthorn, at Appleton Wiske.

Student Kimberley Baines, 17, of Appleton Wiske, said: "We literally went out knocking on doors, and the response has been fantastic.

"Two thousand pounds is a lot of money to try to raise, so we need all the help we can get."

Other planned fundraising events include a cake stall, guess the number of sweets in the jar competition and an auction of promises.

Student Emma Gardiner, 18, of Northallerton, said: "We have been busy in the kitchen, too, getting our hands sticky making cakes to sell. It has been really good fun."

Teacher Alistair Metcalfe said: "The yearbook will provide a lasting memory for the students leaving Northallerton College this year.

"But the process of pulling the project together is an important one, too, giving them a taste of some of the life skills they will need in the future."