Students at Mayflower High School are continuing to build on links with a school in India which shares its name.

Cheque it out - Rotary Club of Billericay Mayflower president Reg Gilbort is pictured with Mayflower students Daniel Howett and Lauren Aldous and Brightside pupils Emma Pryke and Matthew Mint

Mayflower School in Wankaner opened at the beginning of 2000 and pupils at its Billericay namesake raised £7,000 towards equipping the new facility.

Now they have helped raise another £4,500 to provide a clean water supply for students.

Mayflower's fundraising project is being co-ordinated by the Rotary Club of Billericay Mayflower which has helped with the construction of several schools in the Gujerat area of India.

Dr Lindsey Rylah, from the Mayflower Rotary Club, said: "At the moment the school has no water supply and this money will help give the school access to clean, cold water.

"We have helped with the building of three schools in the area, but we have special links with Mayflower because it shares our club's name and is twinned with the school in Billericay.

"The support of Mayflower High School has been absolutely brilliant and I am glad its students are getting something out of it as well."

The Stock Road school first became involved in the project after Dr Ramnik Mehta, a consultant anaesthetist at Nuffield Hospital, went to speak to some of the students.

Inspired by his talk the pupils have undertaken a number of projects to raise money for the Indian school including discos and non-uniform days.

Head teacher Linda Bamford even climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to generate funds for the scheme and was overwhelmed by the support of pupils and parents.

The school at Wankener now provides education for 325 children aged between seven and 11.

Kathy Herlock from Mayflower High said: "The school is very proud to be able to help the school in India and also proud that it has been named Mayflower.

"The original idea of raising the money came from our school council so the momentum for this has come from the students themselves."

Now the infectious enthusiasm of staff and students at Mayflower has spread to pupils at Brightside Primary School in Brightside who raised almost £500 to support the appeal.

Brightside head teacher Deborah Coles said: "Our children are very lucky to have wonderful books, a good school building and many other facilities.

"We thought it would be nice to support Mayflower High School with its fundraising for the school in India."

Dr Mehta and his wife Bhanu, who are both originally from Wankaner, have now invited a group of students from Mayflower High to go out to India at the end of 2002.

Dr Mehta said: "Its fantastic to see all the hard work the children have done and hopefully next year we can take a small group of students out to India."

Meanwhile Dr Mehta plans to continue raising money both for repairs to schools damaged by recent earthquakes and new secondary schools in the area.

For more information about the various projects call 01277 219265.

Published Thursday November 29, 2001