STUDENTS at Beaconsfield school met their new classmates for the first time - via a web-link thousands of miles away.

Beaconsfield School, in Wattleton Road, has forged ties with Government Rokel School in Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, West Africa.

The project is part of a pilot scheme by international children's charity Plan UK to link schools in Britain to partners in Africa.

Four Beaconsfield students introduced themselves last week and spoke in a live teleconference about their respective lives and schooling.

Year 10 pupil Becky Wood said: "I thought that it was a great experience as I found out many facts about Sierra Leone that I didn't know before."

Aside from introducing students to another way of life, the project will help with geography lessons, by way of first-hand accounts from Sierra Leone's people and its environment.

Beaconsfield students were amazed to learn about life in Sierra Leone, with huge class sizes, corporal punishment, school fees and a shortage of doctors.

Classes regularly have 60 students, while the country has only 66 doctors serving a population of just under 6 million people.

There was a lighter side to the discussion as one Freetown pupil talked about his pet monkey and students from both schools told of their shared hobbies, including sports and computer games.

Beaconsfield Year 10 student Cameron Croxson said: "We had many differences but also were the same in many ways. They like to play football and hang out with their friends. I would love the opportunity to welcome students from Freetown over here. If I got the chance to go there I would jump at it."

Beaconsfield headteacher Alex Russell said: "The opportunity to interact with our school partners brought a reality and vibrancy to the linking programme.We entered in to this partnership because we wanted to learn from different cultures and communities and have them learn from us."

By Oliver Evans of Bucks Free Press