The old record of 516 ” set in Goluchow in Poland “was easily felled in a community effort on the grounds of Ellenbrook Primary School.
Top-selling children’s author Andy Griffiths, who originally suggested the idea, coincided his book tour for The 52-Storey Treehouse with the world record attempt.
He said it was great to see the tree theme and record attempt captivating young minds.
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READ NOW‘You put that energy out there and it seems to trigger the same quirky imaginative humour which is in most people,’ he said.
‘This was an idea that seemed to put itself together and like all good ideas it’s obvious in retrospect, but I never would have originally expected it.
‘It’s beyond what I ever meant to start with my book, which was to inspire a lot of reading.’
For the past few weeks, students and teachers have been studying trees in the lead-up to the big finale that combined book week, the tree world record and Griffiths’ visit.
But the school had a brief moment of panic leading up to the record attempt.
Deputy principal Vicki Harley said the school found an unofficial record higher than the 516 human forest the school was aiming to beat.
‘I had to put in some extra leg work yesterday because at 3pm we were told there was another record of 678 on the web, so with some last minute begging and cajoling we got quite a few extra people,’ she said.
Thankfully, the Guinness World Record was easily surpassed.
‘It’s a wonderful experience for the children; I doubt anyone here will experience anything like this again in their lifetime,’ Ms Harley said.
‘The spirit that was generated was amazing ” it really became a community effort and we needed that effort to win.’
‘We really want to inspire the children and promote the idea of reading, so this all centred around our Book Week celebration.’
– Guinness man flies in: Page 7