PUPILS helped raise more than £1,500 for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.

Eastleigh Primary Campus, part of the national Focus Schools’ network, collected the cash through cake sales and sponsored events. The main money spinner was a sponsored cycle, when students at the Nightingale Avenue primary school donned safety helmets and hi-visibility vests and laboured across rugged, off-road cycle paths.

A school spokesman said: “Each year we decide on a main charity to sponsor.

“Not only is it entirely dependent on voluntary giving it is also a service which any of us may need tomorrow.”