TWO pupils at a Darlington school will be spending their gap year working on projects in the Third World, thanks to a fundraising drive.

Hannah Elliott and Sally Wittrick, of Polam Hall School, will fund their gap years in Tanzania and Malaysia with money raised at the school by a second-hand goods trading group.

Bag 2 School collects good-quality second-hand clothes, curtains and bedding, which they then trade in less economically developed countries, such as the Baltic states, West Africa and the Ukraine.

Full bags are worth between £1 and £2, and any items that the organisation feels are unsuitable for sale are used as mattress stuffing.

Money raised through the scheme at Polam Hall will go towards the gap year projects of the two sixth-formers and to projects supported by the parents' association.

Hannah will be spending six months in Tanzania teaching children, and Sally will take part in a rain forest conservation project in Malaysia.

Marie Green, headteacher at Polam Hall, said: "Now all our unwanted items of clothing, shoes and bedding can be put to use to help those less fortunate than us. I congratulate Hannah and Sally."