WILTSHIRE pupils at the Royal High School Bath will see something familiar when they visit a Cambodian school this summer, after Year 7 pupil Annabel Noyce won in first place in the national Gift of Reading competition. Second place in the creative writing competition was also awarded to the Royal High for Emily Whitely’s story Finding Bramble.

Returning from an annual Year 7 team building trip to Kilve Court, Annabel let her imagination run wild. Her story about Reggie the lion came to life when Year 11 Cambodia group volunteers Honor Erskine and Lucia Guest added illustrations. As part of her prize it will be translated into Khmer, the native language of Cambodia, and sent to libraries in 93 village schools.

The Gift of Reading was set up by United World Schools, with whom the Royal High School have set up a school partnership with Keo Ropov village in Ratanakiri, Cambodia. A 14-strong expedition team, including Polly Allan from Hilperton, Jamie Chadwick from Melksham, Lucy Davis from Chippenham, Clara Holmes from West Kington and Maddie Perry from Grittleton, are visiting Keo Ropov in the summer.

The girls are now meeting and coming up with many ways to support their partner school through fundraising - sales of stories written by the Year 7s made £200 at the school’s Christmas Bazaar.

Deputy head Hadrian Briggs, who is leading the UWS project, said: "The amounts needed are small, but the impact is huge. £1 will educate a child for a week, £15 provides safe drinking water for an entire classroom and £80 will stock the school with a library’s worth of Khmer books." In the forest of Northern Cambodia 300 children from ethnic minority groups are now receiving education for the first time, which is vital as their traditional way of life in the forest is under threat from deforestation.