STUDENTS from the Dean Academy have recently returned from the trip of a lifetime to India.

Eight lucky students visited the Lydney academy's link school, Kamla High School, in Mumbai where they distributed pencils to children and visited the Taj Mahal at Agra and the Red Fort in Delhi. Students also experienced an Indian wedding, watched a Bollywood film and rode a cycle rickshaw.

Year 10 pupil, Rosie Knox said: "Visiting India has made me realise we are extremely lucky to have an education and to have the resources we have at the Dean Academy. It has also made me realise that I'm very lucky to live in a house with heating, food, water and other luxuries."

The academy has had links with the school in Mumbai for 13 years. Geography teacher at the academy, Naomi Browne said: "It is the kind of thing that I got into education for. It's a great opportunity for students to share their ideas with others who deal with the barriers of poverty and lack of access to resources every day. Each student went from being apprehensive to embracing every opportunity with both hands. India is an experience like no other and I have no doubt that the students lives have been changed forever. They were a credit to themselves, their parents and the academy."