Three pioneers from Charlton Manor primary school will fly to The Gambia on Monday, February 2, to help the campaign to build a school for some of the poorest children in Africa.

Teachers Shelley Johannesen and Katy Pease, and premises manager Michael Rivers, will be part of a seven-strong team from the Ceesay Nursery School charity led by founder Diane Fisher.

“They will help with teacher training, jolly-phonics – a fun way to teach literacy – and come up with an action plan to build the school from scratch over the next five or six years,” said Sharonjit Chahal, Charlton Manor’s international organiser.

“At the moment they are renting a small building for the 28 children who are each sponsored for £100 a year by people from all over the world, including the UK, America and Australia. That number is expected to increase to 40-plus over the next few years.

“Charlton Manor pupils are in touch with the children through Skype and we hope to be able to provide them with a laptop soon to make the communications easier in future.”

A trainee in The Gambia has completed the first year of a three-year course to become the children’s teacher. She is being sponsored by Charlton Manor through a series of parent-led fund-raising events like bake and book sales.

The campaign at the Charlton school in Indus Road started after headteacher Tim Baker met charity chair Diane Fisher at a Food For Life partnership meeting after Charlton Manor had won a Food For Life gold award.

Shelley Johanneson is the inclusion manager at Charlton Manor. She said: “In Gambia it’s initially about getting children in school, so it’s inclusion in a much bigger and more basic way. The trip is very exciting. The children already Skype each other and it would be wonderful if they were able to meet at some time in the future.”

Year 5 teacher Katy Pease only joined Charlton Manor last September and within weeks was asked if she’d like to go to The Gambia. “I think it’s a wonderful project and I’m very excited about going,” she said. “It’s great to be in the position to go to Africa and share our knowledge for such a good cause. It’s very much about finding the best ways we can help the school.”

Premises manager Michael Rivers, who lives in Charlton and is a plasterer himself, will be there to talk about upkeep and maintenance of the school and the type of school they want to build. “I’ve been at Charlton Manor for five years now and absolutely love it. We’re going out there to reccy and see how best we can help them. It should be great.”

Headteacher Tim Baker added: “The trip to Gambia for our staff gives them the opportunity not only to see the nursery we support but also the teacher we sponsor. It also allows them to see and take part in the learning for the pupils and understand the differences and similarities of each school. It will be a valuable experience for the staff which they will share with Charlton Manor.”

The charity’s Diane Fisher said: “I first discovered this school in 2007 when I was visiting the Gambia and doing some work for another educational charity. Despite not having any resources – literally three pens and two books in the whole school, no blackboard and no regular payment – Mr Ceesay and his teachers had been teaching the local children who could not afford to go to school since 1997.

“I was asked to help them and my family took up the challenge.

Fast forward nearly eight years and we have this trip with a fantastic team of adult volunteers. Our goal: to discover what we need to do to help them be able to finally build their own modern well-resourced nursery school and develop a strategy to make this happen.”