Students stay brave and shave in twelfth year of school fundraiser

Every year since those six boys made their small sacrifice to raise money for Canteen Australia - a national support organisation for young people living with cancer - their school in Trevallyn has annually kept up their legacy of being brave and shaving.

This year, Trevallyn Primary added another $12,927 to its fundraising total as 27 students and three teachers shaved their heads for the 'Be Brave and Shave' charity event.

The annual event and fundraiser has become a tradition of giving at the educational institution which is now Australia's highest fundraising school for Canteen's National Bandana Day fundraiser and fourth ranked in the country for its total, only coming in behind Big W, Foodworks and Newslink.

The entire school cohort, including teachers and proud parents, packed into Trevallyn Primary's Quadrangle to watch the brave students have their heads shaved or hair cut on Thursday, December 7.

The procession of students included the likes of Jack Rush, who was raising funds and shaving his head for his fifth year in a row in memory of his grandmother who passed away in 2017 from cancer.

"I just want to support kids and families who are going through what she did," Jack said.

"I think she'd be proud of that."

Others like Amelia Lee - the only female student who opted to shave rather than cut her hair - hoped to help young people affected by cancer as well, of which there are over 23,000 diagnosed each year in Australia.

Trevallyn Primary's assistant principal Jane Hudson - who as a teacher in 2011 helped the original group of grade four boys organise their head-shaving effort - said the event was a touching tradition.

"You can see it in every instance of these guy's school lives that they want to help people every day," Ms Hudson said.

"There is no one who hasn't been touched by cancer in some way, especially as you get older. So to see them walk over after the shave to hug their parents who have been touched in turn by someone in their loves, it's beautiful."