ADVENTUROUS students from St Mary's Catholic High School in Menston have travelled to South Africa to help pupils in one of the country's poorest areas.

The project, set up by St Mary's assistant headteacher, David Geldart, has seen a link forged with the Mnyakanya High School for the past nine years.

This year’s visit by 14 students was led by Catherine Chattoe and supported by Giles Wilkes and Tom Pringle from St Mary’s, along with Andrew Lockwood, University of Leeds' professional development manager.

St Mary’s students Thomas Brady, Jessica Carroll, Chris Chavez-Cronin, Ben Cheetham, Marienn Collins, Joseph Copsey, Dominique Cunningham, Will Giles, Niall Hogan, Hannah Jowett, Mitchell Lofthouse, Elliot Mulligan, Rebecca Still and Lucy Tindale used sport and literacy to develop and promote education, leadership, health and global understanding to the school children in the Nkandla region of Kwa Zulu Natal.

As part of the Bambisanani Partnership programme, the youngsters prepared curriculum lessons for the learners from Mnyakanya.

Subjects covered included how the heart works, surface area and volume, a music lesson that included 30 people playing the kazoo, bracelet making and an economics lesson, which taught the South African students about production lines. All topics were engaging, interactive and were delivered "brilliantly" by the St Mary’s team, according to staff who travelled with them.

Throughout the ten-day visit, the St Mary’s students also taught their South African counterparts how to play rounders, handball and tag rugby.

The finale of the visit was for Mnyakanya High School to host a sports and literacy festival for hundreds of local primary school children, which they did with tremendous success.

Mr Geldart, founder of the partnership, said: “I would like to thank all involved in this year’s visit, both here and in South Africa.

"Staff and students from both schools have yet again gone the extra mile to develop our joint work.

"This partnership is about two schools from very different parts of the world, working together and learning together. This year, the bar has been raised even higher. My experience is there is no shortage of young people waiting to make a difference in the world.”

Developing leadership and inspiring students through sport and education was what the Bambisanani Partnership set out to do, and watching the performances of the South African students proved its success.

During their visit, the St Mary's students also worked at the Zulufadder Orphanage and Day Care Centre, which supports and cares for HIV/AIDS orphans and vulnerable children throughout Kwa Zulu Natal.

They spent time singing, dancing and reading with the children. The visit to Zulufadder was a hard-hitting reminder of the disparity between the two communities.

Next year will be the tenth anniversary of the Bambisanani Partnership. The schools will be working together to produce a music CD to mark this special occasion.

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