They say you should never work with animals or children but our photographers broke all the rules to work with thousands of young pupils.

In the biggest picture project ever undertaken by the newspaper, 20 photographers visited almost 300 Sussex primary schools in 20 days.

The award-winning snappers notched up hundreds of miles as they crossed the county, photographing thousands of children and their teachers in halls, classrooms, playgrounds and on playing fields.

The colour pictures capture some of the special moments of the children's first days at school.

In a bid to hold the youngsters' attention, the photographers employed some tricks of the trade.

Cuddly animals, squeaky toys and old jokes were dusted off and used to entertain the children as they waited for the flash to go off.

Photographer Kelly Davis put a squeaky toy under her foot and squeaked it every time she took a picture.

Terry Applin brought along his own teddy, Mr Fluffy, to amuse the children.

And Liz Finlayson said: "I told the kids I had a magic bunny in the lens and asked them all to look for it."

Aaron St Clair asked who had cheesy feet and got them to repeat it.

"That usually made them laugh and saying 'cheesy' and 'feet' gives you two chances of getting everyone smiling at the same time."

Jim Holden asked the children to chorus "busy bees" and Alan Jones told jokes about his "big, fat belly" to keep the kids amused.

Picture editor Richard Taylor said: "The photographs are a colourful and unique record of the first days at school for these little ones.

"It was a big job but there weren't any tears or tantrums - not even from the children!"

The photographs feature in three supplements on sale on Monday, priced 50p.

Prints are also available to order.

Schools will also profit from the project.

They get 25 per cent of sales of the supplement and ten per cent of picture re-order money.