Almost 150 wannabee record breakers from year seven packed into the school's main hall this morning (Friday) to try and beat the current record for the number of people reading a poem out loud together.

At 9.15am the pupils read an extract from Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean while across the country as many as 250,000 others were doing the same.

For the school's efforts to be registered the pupils had to read for more than two minutes and, to help them keep a steady pace, the school erected a giant video screen which showed the author reading the poem.

They had a couple of practise run throughs before the youngsters were joined by headteacher Lindsay Hart and all the year seven tutors for the real thing.

The official timekeeper confirmed the pupils had managed to pass the two minute threshold and they now face an anxious to see whether their efforts paid off.

Organisers of similar events throughout the country now have until April to confirm how many people took part in each reading.

Once they have all been submitted the adjudicators at the Guiness Book of World Records will add them up and announce whether or not the record has been broken.

Stephanie Beatty, the english teacher who organised the Hillcrest reading, said: "The pupils have been really excited about this. The Guiness Book of World Records is the most read in our school library and it would be great for the pupils to be part of one of the new records.

"They did brilliantly - its just a matter of keeping our fingers crossed and waiting to find our the result."