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Moortown: Pupils get education aid package
These may look like ordinary photos of pupils using computers.
In fact, the equipment on display has sailed more than 6,000 miles after it was donated by Allerton High in Moortown.
School staff spent weeks sorting out classroom resources they no longer needed as they prepared to move into a new 31m site next door.
The equipment was then put into a cargo carrier and transported across the globe free of charge by Hunslet-based firm Corrocoat.
The container's journey started in the summer and now its contents are finally being used by pupils in a poverty-stricken area of Durban, South Africa.
Allerton's deputy head, Heather Scott, said: "We were moving into a 21st century building and we simply didn't need a lot of the resources from the old site, partly because we were having new equipment, and partly because of curriculum changes.
"It would have been a real shame for the materials to have gone to waste. A lot of the equipment and books were fine and we wanted to put them to good use."
Staff thought it would be a good idea to send the materials to Mayville High School, with which they already had links through drama and dance projects.
A huge amount of learning materials accumulated over decades was sorted and eventually packaged up in more than 100 large boxes. Complete sets of text books, computers, overhead projectors and even pots, pans mixers and whisks were dispatched.
Leeds City Council's international department put the school in touch with Corrocoat, which specialises in anti-corrosion coatings.
The firm arranged for the boxes to be transported in a large shipping container and covered the transportation costs of 3,000.
"We just couldn't have afforded that as a school," said Mrs Scott. "We were really lucky because Corrocoat were brilliant. Their staff repackaged everything we had put into the boxes and even sorted out all the customs paperwork.
"Between us, we have sent some excellent school resources to Durban and every department in the school contributed."
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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