Year Ten and Eleven students from Portland School and Specialist College in Blythe Bridge, Stoke on Trent, are busying planning and preparing for the experience of a lifetime- constructing schools and teaching in The Gambia, Africa.

Portland School has teamed up with the charity Affecting Real Change, a grass roots charity that works with local communities and facilitates responsible volunteering in the developing world, to create an extraordinary opportunity for students with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.  In the Spring of 2014, three students, two teachers and an ARC volunteer will spend a week in Gambia, learning valuable skills and helping create a better educational environment for hundreds of Gambian students.

Portland School is  a special school for students with social, emotional and behavioural The school hopes to make this a regular, sustainable programme that enriches the lives of their students, at the same time giving them valuable social and career skills for a positive future, after successfully matriculating from Portland School.

In 2014, two Year 11 students successfully completed a week creating a garden for Bakau Lower Basic School in the Gambia!  Next expedition, we aim to take five students and complete and even bigger project!