THREE Oxford teenagers are on a trip of a lifetime, as the first UK schoolchildren to set up a school exchange with their opposite numbers in South Africa.

Two pupils from St Gregory the Great School in Cricket Road, and one from Magdalen College School, left on Monday on an exchange organised by the Oak Tree Foundation, which is run by schoolchildren.

Successful links have been running with Australian schools — but this is the first time teenagers from the UK have been involved in a South African exchange.

Victoria Madden, 16, who has just finished her fifth year at St Gregory the Great, said she applied to take part after being “blown away” by a presentation about the scheme by her headteacher John Hussey.

Victoria said: “We will be establishing bonds with our partner schools, working with the children and mentoring them.

“We have prepared some videos in and around our school which we will show them and throughout the whole of the trip we will be making a documentary, which we hope will be screened on terrestrial television when we return.”

Organisers of the scheme approached the two schools to ask if they would like to be part of the exchange, then staff selected interested pupils to take part.

Victoria will be joined by schoolmate Daniel Thacker and Ely Sandler from Magdalen College School.

What makes the exchange different from other school exchange programmes is that it is led by the children, who establish the links and forge bonds without the help of teachers.

Everyone involved in the exchange is under the age of 26.

They will be in South Africa until July 20. They are staying on a university campus and will visit Johannesburg and Durban, as well as spending a night with a Zulu family.

Eventually it is planned to bring some of the pupils Victoria and her friends meet back to their schools to experience a taste of life in Oxford — something they themselves will be raising money for.

fbardsley@oxfordmail.co.uk For more information visit theoaktreeuk.org