A former Holy Family Catholic School pupil is witnessing the poverty and neglect experienced by some of the poorest inhabitants of Argentina.

Daniela Laughlin, 18, of Spring Gardens, in Keighley, is working in a care home in the city of Posadas.

The home is run by Father Liam Hayes, who is originally from Limerick, in Ireland.

Daniela has encountered seriously ill residents who cannot be visited by their relatives because they are too poor to afford travel costs. She said the trip had opened her eyes to the extreme levels of destitution and injustice in some parts of the world. However, she added even the most poverty-stricken local people had gone out of their way to be hospitable and make her feel welcome.

l The school has staged a mock exam results day to make the real thing a little less traumatic for its year 11 students.

Last month’s event was meant to partially replicate the day in August when the pupils will discover how they have performed in their GCSEs. The dress rehearsal saw about 160 students receive gift vouchers based on their mock GCSE results.

Each pupil had previously been set a number of personal academic targets and received a £1 voucher for every target they attained.

Deputy head teacher Sean Gilligan said: “The idea was that by setting individual targets for each pupil it wouldn’t necessarily be the brightest who gained the most vouchers.This way each student is competing against themselves, rather than against his or her classmates.

“A total of £1,300 in vouchers were won and the students were given their results in brown envelopes, as will happen in August.

“Those who need to still have time to improve their results between now and the summer.”