A PRIMARY school teacher who vowed not to shave his beard until schools returned properly will take part in the Virtual Great North Run tomorrow.

Iain Jenkins, who taught at Carterton Primary School for four years before leaving at the end of the last school year, is raising money so the school can buy reading books.

He said: “I decided to take up running during lockdown when the gyms closed and social sports had stopped.

“The beard kind of just happened when we went in to lockdown and I decided that I wouldn’t cut it off until schools returned properly.

See also: Why was Boris Johnson’s plane flying over Oxfordshire?

“As more children returned towards the end of the school year they hardly recognised me, I even ran past some children and their parents, who I had taught for the last year and a half, and they didn’t even recognise me.

“I worked at the school for four years. The first two years were whilst I was completing my teacher training which was school based and then they kept me on for another two years. I want to give something back to the school that supported me through my training.”

Mr Jenkins has decided that if he hits his fundraising target of £500, the beard will disappear.

He continued: “If I do not raise the £500, the beard will stay, I’ve grown quite attached to it.”