A Kempston school will fly the flag at the summit of the world's fifth-highest mountain next month thanks to award-winning soldier Lieutenant Angela Laycock.

Last Thursday pupils from Robert Bruce Middle School were visited by the climber ahead of her visit to Mount Makalu in China.

And she will take with her a prayer flag which has been designed by the youngsters, and plant it at the mountain peak, attached to a Union Jack.

Her mother Janet Laycock, who is a Year Six team leader at Robert Bruce, said: "She is just an ordinary girl from an ordinary family. But when she spoke to the pupils about her life, and about going to Makalu, you could have heard a pin drop.

"We have been doing all sorts of work based on the visit at school, doing maths about how high the summit is, and covering it in geography, RE and assemblies. And in art the children have been designing prayer flags.

"One of the designs, by ten-year-old Letitia Atkins, has an outline of my hand on it to show us giving the team a hand on their way, and it will go up at the summit with the Union Jack."

Lieutenant Laycock, 25, last appeared in the Times & Citizen two years ago when she became only the third female cadet at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst to claim the prestigious 'Sword of Honour', beating Prince William, among others, to the title.

The former Hastingsbury Upper School pupil is currently serving in Pederborn in Germany with the Royal Engineers, but will set off on Easter Sunday as part of a two-and-a-half-month tri-services expedition.

Mrs Laycock said: "While the team are out there they will be staying on the grounds of schools, using their toilets and facilities. To pay them back they are raising money to help refurbish the schools, so we are doing things at Robert Bruce like holding a mufti day."

To follow Angela's progress via an internet blog, visit www.makalu2008.org