FUNDRAISING efforts led by a determined Wollaston school headteacher have helped to improve education and life chances for children on the other side of the world - living in the remote mountains of Nepal.

Following a charity trek in the Nepalese Himalayas in 2014 - St James's CE Primary School headteacher Sally Sixsmith was inspired to start a fundraising project that has seen £25,000 raised by schools across the borough.

The money has gone to help the charity Classrooms in the Clouds to build two earthquake proof classrooms in Bung in the mountainous Solukhumbu district of Nepal.

Mrs Sixsmith, who recently returned to Nepal with 13 staff and governors from schools in Stourbridge and Halesowen to see for themselves the difference their fundraising efforts have made, said: "The project is doing really well.

"It was wonderful to return to the village of Bung and to visit the school to see what a huge difference the new classrooms are making to the local community.

"We know the village children will now have a safe environment to access quality education."

Sponsored events including skydives, triathlons, walks plus cake sales, non-uniform days and craft sales have helped to pull in the pounds for the campaign over the last five years and Mrs Sixsmith said: "Our pupils at St James's and the other Dudley schools involved are very proud of the fundraising they have led which has helped to make this project so successful."

But she said the project has been "so much more though than fundraising" and she added: "What makes it even better is knowing how well children and staff from across the two communities, Dudley and Bung, have developed a close working relationship where we can all learn about each other's cultures and ways of life."

She said St James's pupils have enjoyed learning about life in Nepal and added: "We learn about village life, the geography of Nepal, farming, education and much more.

"St James's pupils are very passionate about the fact that all children have a right to an education and they feel they are able to be a voice for the Nepali children and are helping to improve education for the children in Nepal.

"The project has also enabled us to set up a strong and sustainable teacher exchange programme which is going from strength to strength."

In 2017 Mrs Sixsmith and her deputy Lindsay Mason went to Nepal to work with 20 Nepali teachers for two days' teacher training and she said: "We were able this time to see the impact of some of the training on the teachers and we took lots of new resources for the teachers to use within their classrooms."

Last year St James's also played host to four Nepali teachers for two weeks which Mrs Sixsmith said was "very effective as they were able to teach our pupils about Nepal".

Sherpa guide Dawa Geljen Sherpa has also visited The Kingsway school three times to help Wollaston school pupils learn more about Nepal and to promote the Classrooms in the Clouds charity.