A private school is to host a prestigious international youth conference in Bermuda next year.

The Bermuda High School for Girls (BHS) will invite some 200 students and adults to visit the Island for the Young Round Square of the Americas conference in May 2007.

Conference organiser and school guidance counsellor Tina Nash told The Royal Gazette: "It's such an honour to be picked to have a conference. It's great for the school and for Bermuda and for tourism. There will be schools coming from all over the Americas."

Round Square is an international association of schools which encourages youngsters to become responsible global citizens. BHS became a member school in 2005 after a rigorous two-year selection process.

This month, the 2006 conference will take place in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. Ms Nash will accompany two students from BHS, Carolita Joseph, 14, and Paige Thompson, 13, who will undergo leadership training while there.

Ms Nash has secured Paget Island and the use of its Outward Bound centre for next year's conference, which has the theme Saving Our Oceans.

Visitors from South America, Central America, the US and Canada will get picked up at the airport by a ferry and will sleep and live on Paget Island for the duration of the event, from May 6 to 12. Ms Nash said the aim was to make the conference "100 percent environmentally sound".

"No trash is going to be produced," she said. "Basically, the environment will be the focus and they'll get a chance to explore Paget Island. There will be night expeditions and camping. These are people who are going to live here and remember Bermuda and want to come back."

A number of organisations are supporting the school by providing staff and services free of charge, including the Outward Bound centre, Bermuda Aquarium and Zoo, the National Trust and the marine police.

Ms Nash said membership of Round Square gave the school "a whole other level of internationalism". "It gives us these networks we can have," she said.