A school has welcomed visitors from Europe as part of an international teaching skills programme.

St Mary’s Primary, in Marsh Road, Burnham, is working with schools from Italy and Czechia (formerly known as the Czech Republic) in an international project to share tips on teaching methods.

The two-year project which started in September has received £18,000 of funding from Erasmus+, which is part of the European Commission, in order to work with schools and aid in the travel costs for visiting teachers.

Italian representatives have been at the school, shadowing teachers to find out what maths teaching and learning looks like in England.

This project involves each school visiting each of their partner schools once a year to allow further research into creative ways to help children achieve strong problem-solving skills in maths.

Assistant headteacher Linda Wells first developed the idea when using eTwinning – an online community platform for schools in Europe to share ideas.

Mrs Wells said: “We have always been an international school.

“It started when we joined eTwinning to share advice on teaching methods with schools across Europe.

“It was something that I wanted to develop further so I started up a conversation on the forum and asked if anyone was interested in doing an exchange.

“The teachers who came looked at the resources we use in maths and in our coding classes which we teach to our Year Six pupils. We are mainly focusing around how we can enhance our teaching strategies and are concentrating mainly on maths and computing.

“We have found that children are good at the skills, but it is the methods of problem-solving we would like to explore.

“It was a really good opportunity for the children to learn about the culture of Italy as well as thing like the weather, food and geography.

“Children got to ask the visiting teachers about the schools in Italy and how students are taught over there.

“In the future, we are planning to send three teachers to Ancona so that they may learn new strategies there.

“At the end of the programme, the school will send a full report to the British Council on how it has impacted teaching for the schools involved.”

She added: “This is a really exciting opportunity for our children and staff to develop a working relationship with our partner schools and to learn about the countries that they come from, gaining a greater understanding and tolerance of the world around us.

“We look forward to sharing the results with the local community and schools at the end of the project.”