A vicar with pink hair was in the news in November, as well as a poppy-making 10-year-old and one of the oldest pubs in Hitchin being listed as a community asset.

The Comet: Emily Piper & Ron Piper at the Sir John Barleycorn, which has been registered as a community assetEmily Piper & Ron Piper at the Sir John Barleycorn, which has been registered as a community asset (Image: Archant)

• Thousands of pounds was raised for this year’s Children in Need appeal. One fundraiser was the Rev Ann Pollington, the rural dean of Hitchin Deanery and vicar of churches in St Ippolyts, Great Wymondley and Little Wymondley, who dyed her hair bright pink for the cause. Rev Pollington raised more than £1,000 for the cause.

The Comet: An artist's impression of how the new school will lookAn artist's impression of how the new school will look (Image: Archant)

• A pub which has been at the heart of a community since the 1800s was granted community asset status.

The Comet: Jessica Bedford with two of her poppiesJessica Bedford with two of her poppies (Image: Archant)

The Sir John Barleycorn pub in Oughtonhead Way, Hitchin, became the first pub in the town to have been given the status after a community group decided to safeguard the pub against future development. It now means that if the pub comes up for sale, the community will be given six months to put together a bid to buy it.

Pub licensee Ron Piper said: “A lot of the regulars have seen pubs in the town close and don’t want to see it happen to this one.”

• A 10-year-old girl came up with a novel idea to raise funds for the Poppy Appeal.

Jessica Bedford, from Knebworth, came up with the idea of making poppy hairclips to support the British Armed Forces and their families.

She said: “I made 12 hair clips. Lots of people ordered them and I had to make lots more.”

• Plans were revealed to transform a secondary school into a state-of-the-art facility and totally rebuild it.

The Highfield School in Letchworth GC is set to be transformed under the Education Funding Agency’s priority schools building programme.

Building work is expected to start in March 2014. Headteacher Ian Morris said: “The new school has been designed very much with the garden city ethos in mind. We are retaining the green feel of the school.”