A FOREIGN exchange scheme with a difference is taking place this week.This time it is the teachers and not the pupils who are trading places with their foreign counterparts.

A FOREIGN exchange scheme with a difference is taking place this week.

This time it is the teachers and not the pupils who are trading places with their foreign counterparts.

In April ten teachers from schools across the county flew out to Ukraine to experience life in the classrooms of Eastern Europe.

Following extensive fundraising efforts on their return, £3000 was raised by the schools to fly four Ukrainian teachers out to Suffolk.

The teachers, all from School Number Three in Kharkiv, arrived in the UK last weekend and have been observing lessons and giving presentations on the Ukraine.

For the last two days the teachers have been at Kesgrave High school. Tanya Pelikhova, director of English studies at School Number Three, said: "This is the best school we have ever seen before! The students are wonderful, very well behaved, and the school has so much equipment."

Fellow teacher Valeriy Bakumenko said: "This has been a very useful trip. The schools here are very different to ours and it is very interesting to see the way they teach."

Teachers from the Suffolk school feel it has been an extremely valuable experience for both themselves and their pupils. Nicola Thatcher, a maths teacher at Kesgrave High, said: "It has made the children aware how lucky they are and what they have got. They were amazed to discover that the Ukrainian school only had one computer, even though it is the same size as ours."

During the rest of the week the teachers will be visiting Leiston Middle, Middleton Primary, St Edmunds Primary, Hartismere High, Bungay Middle and Bramfield Primary.