STUDENTS at Tavistock College had a visit from a charity working to eradicate child poverty recently and learned all about the work they do.

Year nine pupils were given the opportunity to hear a guest speaker from PLAN UK, Chris Gall, speak passionately about his experiences of building, working in and financing schools and supporting individual pupils in India. Photographs, videos and practical activities were used to portray the Indian children's stories.

The students had to carry a water basket around the school hall, and work out how a family of 12 would live in a slum house — a 10 foot enclosure represented by chairs.

Tori Froud, geography teacher, said: 'Year nine geography students have been studying the UN Millennium Development Goals, eight of which were established to improve the lives of the less fortunate, in the context of this term's work on globalisation.

'They have also focused on sweatshops, banana wars, fair-trade and Chinese produced textiles, as part of this unit.

'Having a guest speaker in allowed the students to hear first hand the positive impact that an individual can have on a community in a less developed country.'