TEACHERS from a Pendle high school learned how children in Africa are taught when they visited a ‘twinned’ school in Ghana.

Fisher More High School in Gibfield Road, Colne, has linked up with St Dominic’s Junior High School in Kammasi, Ghana, as part of the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms project.

During half-term, head of geography Andy Reeves and languages teacher Catherine Wright visited the school for the first time.

They exchanged ideas about teaching, saw how the school day works and observed lessons during the visit.

Mr Reeves said: “It is very different from life at a British school.

“The school day starts at 7am and they finish at 2pm, and the classes are much bigger.

“At the school we were at, the largest class had 48 pupils, but the school next door to our hotel had a class with 73 pupils. A lot of the children and their families have made a big commitment to go to school. Many of the children are very keen to be at school.

“Education is free in Ghana but they have to pay for extra lessons, as well as uniforms and food. The school is on the edge of town, it is a semi-rural area and many of the houses are what we would consider simple shack houses.”

Since returning from the visit, the teachers have been feeding their findings back to the school, as well as talking about the visit to the children. Mr Reeves added: “I’ve been doing assemblies all week and talking about the visit.

“The children here have been fascinated about it. It’s great that they can see that children from other parts of the world are essentially the same as them.”