A WEYMOUTH school welcomed a special guest for a cross cultural celebration.

Beechcroft St Paul’s School held a service of celebration at St Paul’s Church to welcome visiting headteacher Timothy Mwanga from Kenya.

Mr Mwanga was visiting from the Mwimbi Boarding School, Kenya, as part of a reciprocal exchange programme. The school, near Mount Kenya, takes children from age four to 14.

The aim of the programme is to link schools in Dorset with those in Kenya.

Representatives from several schools in the Chesil partnership travelled to Kenya to teach at schools across the country.

Year 4 teacher Emma Maggs, visited Mr Mwanga’s school with teaching assistant Dianne Bentley.

She said: “It was lovely.

“We went over for a week during the Easter Holidays and taught the children about the Jurassic Coast, as Mount Kenya is also a World Heritage site.

She added: “We got to go to the Nairobi National Museum and got involved in a lot of art and dancing lessons with the children.”

For the second part of the exchange Mr Mwanga spent a week at the school learning about the different educational system and different culture.

Activities included making chocolate chip cookies with the Year 5 class, making sand castles with Year 2 and taking a trip to Nothe Fort with Year 3.

At the special celebration service Mrs Maggs and Mrs Bentley wore traditional Kenyan dress, which Mr Mwanga had brought across for them. The long robes with detailed embroidery are worn for special occasions like weddings and parties.

In exchange the school gave Mr Mwanga presents to take back for the Kenyan school children.

Knitted dolls, which had been hand made by people in the community, were given for the younger children and sports equipment was sent for the older pupils.

Teachers gave Mr Mwanga a digital camera to use, as well as paperwork with details of the National Curriculum.

Mrs Maggs said: “It was quite an eventful week really and an amazing experience.”

The schools have been strengthening their links through letter writing between exchanges.

Every pupil at the school has a Kenyan pen pal and the teachers are hoping to set up a teachers’ link too.

Next year Beechcroft St Paul’s school hopes to send two teachers to Africa and expand the exchange in the future.