A Grays primary school has broken records – by raising £8,000 for African families in only one day.

The amount ‘shocked’ the international development charity it was raised for – Farm Africa - who said it was the largest amount a school had ever donated to them.

Children at Tudor Court Primary School raised the money by putting on wellies and doing laps of their school – through paddling pools.

830 children took part in the colourful rubber splash-a-thon – which also raised more money than the school has raised in all its previous years of fundraising put together.

Farm Africa – which runs the welly-appeal called ‘Give Hunger the Boot’ – said they were ‘amazed’ at the school’s ‘incredible efforts’.

Farm Africa’s Chief Executive, Nigel Harris, said: “We are truly amazed and delighted to receive such a wonderful donation from Tudor Court Primary. This donation will make a huge difference in helping, and on behalf of all the communities we are working with I’d like to extend a heartfelt thank you for this enormous sum.”

Head Teacher Vivienne Northall said: “We are welly proud of all our fab fundraisers here at Tudor Court. What really pleases me is that it was the children themselves who chose Farm Africa as their charity for this year’s fundraiser. It’s been really inspiring to see the way they have thrown themselves head first into raising as much money as they can for children and families thousands of miles away.”

The charity Farm Africa works to change the lives of families in eastern Africa.

Chief Executive Nigel Harris will travel to the school early in 2015 to thank the children personally for the donation.