Six months after teaching English to schoolchildren in Sri Lanka, Ilkley boys Lawrence Walsh and Josh Ellis-Jones are still receiving enthusiastic emails.

For Lawrence and Josh, who are both 17, it was a life-changing experience. They realised just how much they took for granted in every-day life from youngsters who had a genuine passion for learning.

The boys are both pupils at Ermysted’s Grammar School in Skipton. It was there that they first learnt about the life of youngsters in Sri Lanka who are struggling to rebuild their community in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami.

Ermysted’s is partnered with Zahira College in Sri Lanka through the Government’s Global School Partnerships Programme.

It provides advice, guidance and grants to schools using the partnerships in a bid to foster an awareness and understanding of global issues among pupils.

The boys were inspired to travel to Sri Lanka after hearing about their deputy head-master David Gray Clough’s experi-ences at the school.

He travelled to Zahira College in a bid to strengthen the ties between the two schools.

When he returned, he shared his experiences with the rest of the school – prompting Lawrence, who plans to be a teacher, and Josh to want to visit the college themselves.

Josh, who had never flown before, and Lawrence financed and organised the trip themselves, and flew out to Sri Lanka in June for two weeks.

During their stay, they lived at the college and taught English to all age groups and accompanied the children on trips into the mountains and on safari.

The college is situated in the small rural town of Hambantota – about the same size as Addingham – in the southeastern coastal district of Sri Lanka. The town was devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the college has been rebuilt by Unicef.

Out of a population of 11,000 people, more than 3,000, including children and teachers from the school, died in the tsunami.

But despite its modern appearance, the college lacks books, desks, chairs and teachers. “We found that everything we take for granted here was lacking there,” said Lawrence.

But despite their lack of resources, the boys found that the 400 to 500 students were very enthusiastic and extremely willing to learn.

The school day started at 7am with prayers, but the older boys and girls started half an hour earlier to carry out housework and maintenance.

“On our first morning, we were thrown right into the deep end and given a timetable by the headmaster, Mr Zahir, of the classes we would be teaching,” said Josh.

“The kids were keen to learn and very excited about meeting us, if not a bit nervous.”

To start with, the boys were helped by a teacher who was able to translate but the hardest part was trying to understand just how much English the students could understand.

“It took us a while to work out a way to communicate with them so they could understand us, but after the first day, this was an art we had mastered,” said Lawrence.

The boys – who both live in Ilkley – taught around 30 hours of English to a wide range of age groups.

“We had to adapt our lesson structures for the different abilities of classes and had to have a wide variety of lesson plans, consisting of everything from nursery rhymes and colours to subordinate clau-ses and John Donne poetry,” said Josh.

But they found the students were so willing to learn, there was never any problem with discipline.

“Lessons finished for all at 1.30pm and they were then free to go home. However we found that many came back for extra lessons,” said Lawrence.

“The gates also stayed open for any children who wished to play badminton or volleyball and this was where we spent a lot of time when we weren’t teaching as it was great fun and a great chance to meet the children outside of a classroom environment.”

There was also time for the boys to join college trips to the Bundala National Park and to the mountains at Nuwara Eliya.

“It was a fantastic trip, it was just a good thing there were no health and safety people from England there to see it,” said Josh.

By the end of their stay, the boys noticed a real difference in the way the students were tackling English. “The children had never met anyone who had spoken natural English before, they were very keen to learn and by the time we left, they were noticeably better,” said Josh.

They financed their trip – which cost £1,300 – following an appeal to local businesses and organisations.

They are now sharing their experiences with primary schools and Rotary clubs in Ilkley, Skipton and Wharfedale.

Meanwhile, they would love to be able to return at some time.

“Every child there was eager to learn and to progress in their studies, there are certainly things that every child and teacher from our school could learn from visiting them and we have learnt much about ourselves,” said Josh.