Teamwork takes off

Chloe Scholfield, Nahida Abasi, Umar Gaffar, Neha Sharma and the rest of the team. All the students live in Rochdale

If you live in Rochdale, Heywood - or maybe Amsterdam - keep your eyes peeled for any balloon with a tag you might find. It could be one of the hundred balloons launched by Hopwood Hall College students this week, in aid of the Meningitis Trust.

The students, all studying Health and Social Care, organised the event as part of their training in effective team working. They planned and publicised the event and fundraised across both College campuses, raising just under £300.

Umar Gaffar, 16, said, “We chose to support the Meningitis Trust as one of us lost a friend to this disease recently.”

Susan Day, their tutor, said: “I am really thrilled at how well the students did. They put a lot of time and effort into the event, and gained valuable skills in teamwork, which will be important for any jobs they do in future.”

The team hope that people who find the balloons will contact the College.

Neha Sharma, 17, said: “As well as English, we got the tags printed in German, French and Dutch as this is often the direction of the wind. There’ll be a small prize for the person who finds the balloon that flew the farthest.”