Staff uniforms, sweatshirts, hoodies, polo shirts – when a school changes its name inevitably there is a lot of out-of-date sports kit. Bosworth Academy, which became an academy earlier this year, has found a solution to the dilemma of what to do with good but unwanted items. Rather than discarding it to landfill, 198 items of clothing are on their way to the deprived region of Amizmiz in Morocco.

The school has a long association with Morocco; in the past seven years over 200 pupils have been on expeditions in the Atlas mountains, as part of their leadership and learning outside the classroom. Amizmiz lies at the foot of the High Atlas mountain range and has many small Berber villages nearby without electricity or running water. Struck by the need in the area, these groups have often ended up giving the shirts off their backs to local communities or taken small gifts for children in order to help.

Pupils and staff have been busy collecting and now three massive cartons of children and adult clothing are being sent to a region where winter temperatures can plummet to -20 ○C. “We encourage a strong sense of community and an understanding of the wider world,” explains Chris Parkinson, Principal of Bosworth Academy. “We are very proud of our new name, but even prouder that we can make a contribution to an area which has been so welcoming to us, but doesn’t have the benefits we take for granted.”

The clothing will be distributed directly to the most needy communities with the help of World Challenge Area Manager, Daniel Seton. World Challenge organises the Academy’s annual expedition to Morocco.