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This record involves putting top hats on top of top hats without toppling them! 😵

Hats off to the students from Northgate School Arts College (Northampton, UK) who, in July 2021, broke the record for the tallest stack of hats worn at once. 🎩🧢

It was 103.2 cm (3 ft 4 in) tall and worn by their teacher, Leanne Underwood.

VM

Northgate is a school for pupils who have special educational needs. Last summer, a class in Year 10 (age 14-15) were working on a project to improve their local community. 😃

However, with COVID-19 restrictions in place, they were unable to travel outside and interact with the community.

The students didn’t let that bring a stop to their project though. They came together to discuss how they could instead make a difference to their immediate community – the school.

After some brainstorming, one pupil came up with the brilliant idea of trying to break a world record because it would cheer everyone up and give them something to be proud of. 😊

But which world record should they break? 🤔

After some more thinking, the class made their final decision. They were going to achieve the tallest stack of hats worn at once.

This was by no means an easy record to break – the students had a huge challenge on their hands (or heads, rather). 🤯

The record was first set by Blue Peter presenter Lindsey Russel, who wore a 63 cm (2 ft 1 in) stack of hats in 2017.

After Lindsey, the record was broken three more times. The height Northgate School had to beat was 100.33 cm (3 ft 3.5 in), set by John Fitzsimmons (USA) in 2019.

The students spent five months perfecting their technique. They tried out different combinations of hats until they worked out the best mixture of baseball caps, woolly hats and top hats in order to form a tall, strong stack. 👒🎩🧢

Each student took a turn building the stack during the practise attempts, before one student was chosen for the official attempt.

With Mrs Underwood sitting as still as possible on a chair, a student carefully placed 15 hats on her head, one by one.

The stack grew taller and taller, until it eventually passed the height of the previous world record.

However, they couldn’t celebrate straight away. In order to achieve the record, the stack of hats must remain standing for 30 seconds after the last hat is placed on top. 😳

After a nail-biting wait, hoping that their hard work didn’t all come crashing down, the students jumped for joy when the countdown ended. 😄🥳️

With a record-breaking height of 103.2 cm (3 ft 4 in), they successfully achieved the tallest stack of hats worn at once.

Northgate School says that breaking this record is “a huge accomplishment for our pupils as they are often written off of achieving anything special because of their complex needs.”

“It really shows them how wonderful they are and that hard work pays off.”

Congratulations to everyone at Northgate School Arts College! 👏

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