Winnie the Pooh, Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks were among those bidding for a new world record at St Mary’s School in Calne last week.

The students, plus their counterparts from prep school St Margaret’s, attempted to break the record for the most people dressed as storybook characters gathered in one place.

The attempt, which was organised to coincide with World Book Day, fell just short as they could only manage to get 597 people, an agonising 47 short of the 644 record.

Despite the failure, the event raised more than £500 for charity.

It was all the brainchild of 15-year-old Claudia Meiss-ner, a Year 10 pupil from Stockley.

She said: “For Christmas I always get the Guinness Book of World Records.

“This year I said I thought it would be a nice idea to try and break one of the records.

“We run a group at school called Challenge 500, where groups start off with £10 and have to try to raise £500 for charity. So we decided to go for this world record.”

So the girls contacted St Margaret’s and began putting up posters.

Though their efforts failed to get their names into next year’s edition of the book, Claudia – who dressed as Winnie the Pooh – said she was still proud of what they achieved.

She said: “It was quite disappointing that we didn’t get the record. But it was amazing to see everyone dressed up and we raised about £500 for the Prince’s Trust.”