STUDENTS and staff from Gloucestershire College's Forest of Dean campus welcomed partners from nine European countries for the unveiling of a human sundial constructed by students.

The artwork was built as part of the SARAH (Science ARound us Along History) project, part of the Comenius educational programme run by the European Union.

Sixteen teachers from eight countries including Poland, Sweden, France, Romania, Austria, Spain, Italy and Turkey spent two weeks in the UK.

It was the culmination of the two-year project with which the college has been involved to promote sciences and exchanges between schools and colleges across Europe.

Over the past few months, a group of students from four Forest of Dean schools, who are currently studying Level Two construction and the built environment at Gloucestershire College, built the human sundial at Five Acres campus using locally-sourced materials.

The stone was donated by Breedon Aggregates and transported free-of-charge by local haulier Nick Randford, while the timberwork was created by Clayton Ryder from the Dean Heritage Centre.

Construction lecturer, David Auker-Howlett, said: "This project has enabled our construction students to learn new techniques and further their maths skills, when designing and building the sundial. With the experience of visiting countries and meeting other young people from other cultures, the students are being exposed to the wider world, which is important to their personal development."

Earlier this year, two of the students, 16-year-old Jack Robins from Drybrook and Stuart Burrows from Newnham, visited Turkey, where they were involved in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) activities with students from the EU partner countries.

Jack said: "During the trip I experienced how young Turkish people live and how their culture is different to ours. I also presented our sundial project to our European partners and was involved in science and history trips – it was great."

Then in March, a group of Gloucestershire College's A-level and construction students visited Nova Siri in Southern Italy to present an impressive environmental research project about the Severn tidal barrage and tidal energy to the nine partner countries.

During their UK trip, the teachers completed the final report for the SARAH project and also had visits to the college's Cheltenham and Gloucester campuses, as well as Gloucester Docks, Slimbridge Wetland Centre and Cardiff Bay.