The Abbey School team were flippin’ fabulous at this year’s Launchpad Charity Pancake Race.

On Shrove Tuesday Upper V students Laura, Gracie and Ranaya teamed up with Mrs Durrant to compete against other local community teams racing along Broad Street in Reading.

Cheered on by a cracking turn out of Abbey supporters, the team had to take part in a series of knock-out relay races – making sure they flipped their pancake three times on each leg. Failure to complete the required flips led to instant disqualification!

To mark The Abbey’s celebrations for the #NationalYearofReading2026 our team were in fancy dress as crayons, in homage to the popular The Crayons series, created by author Drew Daywalt and illustrator Oliver Jeffers.

We decided to create our own title for the charity race, “The Day the Crayons Ran in a Pancake Race!”

Our ‘crayons’ did some fabulous fast flips, winning their first heat by a significant distance. Unfortunately, however, they were knocked out by some Oompa Loompa’s in the next round.

But we were still victorious!

The Abbey School was announced as ‘Top Fundraiser’ and the team accepted the award from the Mayor of Reading.

Launchpad supports the homeless in our area and last year helped more than 1,800 people in Reading to get back on their feet.

What a pleasure it was to be part of such a joyous Reading community event, raising money for such a worthy cause.