Children and staff at a Bromsgrove school are devastated after a group of exchange visitors from a sister school in the Gambia were refused travel permits.

Pupils from North Bromsgrove High have spent the last 12 months raising around £1,200 towards the cost of airline tickets for the Armitage Senior Secondary School visitors, who have now been denied access.

The four visitors, two 17-year-old students, the boarding school's administrative officer and the wife of the head of science, were due to arrive in the UK last Friday for a three week visit.

But they have been refused entry into Britain.

Mike Carrick, a former North Bromsgrove physics teacher who has spent the past 15 years forging closer relations between the two schools, says he is bitterly disappointed with the decision by the British High Commissioners.

He is unable to gain a refund on the charter airline tickets and he is now, together with the school's former deputy head Mike Hendley, calling on the British High Commission to revise the rules for next year.

Mr Carrick said: "I feel particularly sorry for the North Bromsgrove High School students who have struggled for a whole year to raise money through sponsored walks, car boot sales and car washes.

"I also feel sorry for the students in the Gambia who may never have the opportunity to come over to this country again."

The British High Commission insists that the applicants do not fulfil the criteria to gain a visa and have accused Armitage School of abusing their position on this occasion.

Mr Carrick said the children in the Gambia were of the same age as the children at North Bromsgrove High and, with it being a boarding school, staff other than teachers were also involved in the project.

He is now looking to the town's Tory MP, Julie Kirkbride, to help.

Mr Hendley said: "They've lost it all. We are hoping to carry on with one or two of the events we had planned in their honour but we have had to call off the rest. The students are terribly disappointed. They can't believe it's happened.

"We appear to have been singled out and we want to know why."