She is a former head teacher who has been dubbed Norfolk's woman with altitude.

Carol Jennings retired last year after being head of Wells Primary School for seven years, but far from taking things easy, she is preparing to climb England's four highest mountains in the space of three days.

Mrs Jennings, 60, who lives in Burnham Norton, near Wells, is training for the Four Peaks Challenge, where she will attempt to climb Skiddaw, Scafell Pike, Scafell and Helvellyn, all in the Lake District.

Each mountain is more than 3,000ft high, Mrs Jennings will attempt to climb them between July 2-5 and is aiming to raise at least �1,000 for the Alzheimer's Society.

As head of Wells Primary School for seven years, Mrs Jennings oversaw the school's transformation from special measures to good in Ofsted ratings.

An achievement that, no doubt, required an enormous amount effort and determination, qualities which Mrs Jennings will need in abundance to complete her latest challenge.

She said: 'It will be tough, and sometimes I find coming down the mountains harder than going up them because of the strain it puts on my knees, but it should also be a lot of fun.

'It's not easy to train for mountain climbing in Norfolk, but I'm doing lots of fast walking, aerobics, swimming and working out in the gym. I go on the treadmill and put it up to maximum elevation.'

Mrs Jennings has more than 25 years of experience of mountain climbing and has climbed mountains in Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Ecuador and Ethiopia.

Last year, she travelled to Nepal and did a trek at Everest Base Camp and also climbed the 18,192ft Kala Patthar, the highest mountain she has been up.

Mrs Jennings, who taught in schools in north and west Norfolk for 32 years, will climb with a group of up to 60 climbers raising money for Alzheimer's Society.

Anyone wishing to sponsor Mrs Jennings, can go to www.justgiving.com/carol-jennings0