WHILST most teddies either stay in bed or go for the occasional picnic, those at Ingleton Middle School are trotting the globe.

The 22 intrepid travellers, decked in various garb are placed into the safe hands - or suitcases - of school friends and colleagues who are going on their holidays.

The idea to use teddies came from teacher Chris Leeming. He wanted to establish links with other countries, particularly those with which the school is linked, namely Sweden, France, Austria and Italy.

He thought about using a single teddy which would be invited along on a holiday to several different places. It would fill in a diary so pupils could saw what it had seen and done.

"It soon became necessary to purchase more teddies because one was not going to be enough. It was hoped one bear could go to several different parts of Europe each year but the problem was people didn't return it very quickly," said Mr Leeming.

It also became obvious that the bears' trips were going to have to be further afield than Europe after several requests were received to take them to other continents.

An appeal to the children to provide some more teddies resulted in the school adopting 22 cuddly characters which have travelled to a total of 431 places in 96 countries.

Now the teddies are writing back to the children from far away places like Australia, New Zealand, the Holy Land, The Russian Republic, Lapland, South America and Africa and - The Three Peaks!

One particular teddy named Sumba has made a record 30 trips to different places.

But danger can also behold these unsuspecting bears. Whilst some were penning messages of "wish you were here" and "having a nice time" one furry friend who had been taken on a skiing trip to Italy with a pupil from Settle Middle School was kidnapped!

"The girl had accidentally dropped him on the floor of her room and returned to find a ransom note written in Italian demanding 1000 lira (around 50p) for its safe return," Mr Leeming added.

Elsewhere four teddies disappeared when luggage was stolen and another had a lucky escape during an attempted daylight robbery in Bolivia.

"This teddy was in the rucksack on the back of one of the children's fathers when the bag was snatched. Fortunately a nearby taxi driver gave chase, rugby-tackled the robber to the ground and brought the bag back," said Mr Leeming.

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