Pennywell School, in Portsmouth Road, has forged ties with Mayieka Secondary School, in Kenya, to take part in what Prime Minister Gordon Brown called, the "world classroom".

Vicky Gilbert, inclusion co-ordinator at Pennywell School, said: "We have been in touch with the school there for a year now and we have got a lot out of it.

"We each sent 10 facts about our schools and the pupils were studying the same lesson plan as we were, looking at children's rights and the children's charter."

After the lessons the pupils wrote to each other to compare their leaning experiences and look at the similarities and differences between them.

The children in Sunderland were surprised at how advanced the education of African children was and it helped to break stereotypes.

Children's charity Plan devised the project to help meet Government targets of international links for schools and boost education standards in the developing world.

The project acts as a forum in which students can share opinions and concerns on current issues and how they affect them, such as the environment and climate change.

It was hoped Pennywell and Mayieka would be in touch through email by now, but the recent unrest in Kenya meant the pupils lost contact for several months.

Youngsters at Pennywell were worried about their new-found friends and the headteacher, Kevin McDermid, held two special assemblies to explain the situation.

Ms Gilbert added: "We eventually got a lovely letter from the headteacher saying no one had been hurt.

"Everyone was delighted to hear they were back at school."
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