THEY were hard-boiled little characters, but they won the hearts of children at Fawley Infant School and inspired them to collect £770 for charity.

Each pupil faced the task of caring for a 20-minute egg for one week to raise sponsorship for children's charity Barnardo's.

They made sure their little double-yolkers showed no signs of cracking-up, dressed them, made little houses, beds, bags and swings for them, and even talked to them.

And the egg-rearing success of the 67-pupil school has been rated one of the best in the south by Barnardo's education field officer Lucy Hone.

Lucy visited Fawley Infant School last week to explain to the four to seven-year-olds how Barnardo's helps deprived and disabled children. Then she launched them on the egg-coddling project - a successful fundraising idea for the charity for 15 years.

She said: "We run a number of appeals based on the idea of caring and nurturing because that is what we do at Barnardo's.

"I cover 600 primary schools in my patch and this is one of the smallest. For them to raise so much is astonishing. It proves what a caring and warm-hearted community they are."

Fawley's head teacher Tina Daniel said she was amazed at the response from her pupils - and their parents.

"This was one scheme where the parents did most of the hard work helping the children look after their eggs. But the children obviously loved the idea and entered into the spirit of it," she said.

"They had to keep their egg happy and make it smile.

"We may have had a few cracked specimens but every one had personality."