Students from a Bradford school will create a memorial garden at a Sri Lankan school which lost pupils in the tsunami disaster.

Pupils at the Girls' Grammar School, Bradford, will visit Sri Lanka this summer on a sporting tour.

But the girls in the school's hockey and netball teams will also help with the rebuilding effort in the country which was devastated by the tsunami in South Asia.

The sports trip was planned before the disaster which struck on Boxing Day 2004, killing 40,000 in Sri Lanka alone.

But the school's director of sport Jan Hemsley said they had been determined to go ahead with the tour.

Now a group of 27 players, aged between 14 and 16 will spend 12 days in Sri Lanka playing six games of hockey and netball against teams from the country's schools.

During their stay the party will also help to create a memorial garden at the Beruwela School, in Beruwela on the south west coast of Sri Lanka, which lost pupils and was badly damaged in the disaster.

Staff and pupils at the school in Squire Lane, will jet out in July. The trip was organised through Edwin Doran, a company which organises sports travel trips overseas.

The company has links with the volunteers helping to rebuild the school.

During their stay students will work alongside pupils from the Beruwela school to help create the memorial garden.

Mrs Hemsley said: "As well as playing matches and enjoying the different culture the island has to offer, the girls will be involved in a Ground Force-type project when they help to rebuild a memorial garden for a school which lost pupils in the tsunami.

"Now that it is getting nearer we are getting more excited."

Zara Paes, 15, one of the pupils on the tour, said: "It is an honour to be able to go to Sri Lanka to help people overcome the tsunami.

"I have been playing netball for seven years but this is the first time I have travelled abroad to play it.

Lydia Shelton, 15, of Skipton, said: "It is a really good idea. We have been fundraising to to take part in the trip with a non-uniform day and clothes collection.

The group will make a cash donation of £2,000 to the Beruwela School during their visit.

Girls took part in a non-uniform day where they all paid to wear blue as the Sri Lankan national flower is the blue water lily.

They have also raised cash by donating old clothes through the Bag2 School charity.

e-mail: john.roberts@bradford.newsquest.co.uk