PAULINE Edmondson and her technicolor dream-hair have raised more than £1,500 for The Chalet School, in Liden.

The 69-year-old Swindon Council transport assistant has been working with schools across the town for more than 20 years.

She has spent the past five years working with The Chalet School, in Liden, where the school’s rainbow logo inspired her to raise money with a particularly ambitious hairstyle.

After a conversation with headteacher Katharine Bryan, Pauline, of Culpetter Close in Park South, resolved to raise money for balancing bikes which the pupils can use to aid their learning.

One month after her session in the chair at Cavendish Square’s Haircare, Pauline handed over a cheque for £1,538 yesterday.

“I’ve still got a few colours left in there,” she said. “I have already had it cut tight in a shorter style, blow-dried, but there’s still some colour in there.

“People have been stopping me in the street and said they are so proud because what we have done is so lovely.

“Another young person at the till in the Co-op said ‘excuse me, but your hair looks fantastic, you have done a real, real good job.’”

As well as the comments she has been getting in public, Pauline has been more than surprised with the amount of money she has raised.

After raising £960 herself, there was another huge contribution from a family member and their colleagues at BMW’s pressings workshop.

“I couldn’t believe the amount of money, and when it was coming in I had to keep going back and checking to make sure I had got the number right,” she said.

“I was so surprised because the people who paid out didn’t pay in pounds, they were paying out in fives and £20 notes.

“I was surprised because I thought the whole hair colour thing was a bit stupid.

“A lot of people mess about with different colours, perhaps it was because of my age that people were generous.”

The Chalet School is a small special school, catering for pupils aged three to 11, with complex learning difficulties including children with an autistic spectrum condition. Their needs are deemed to fall outside the provision normally made within mainstream schools, but less severe than provision needed for pupils with long-lasting and severe or profound learning difficulties, whose range of needs, within Swindon, are normally met in Brimble Hill School.

The current agreed maximum number on roll is 55.