A KIDDERMINSTER primary school teacher gave up her half term holiday to travel to Malawi to “teach the teachers” at a remote school and orphanage.

Amy Jew, who teaches at Franche Community Primary School, in Chestnut Grove, also delivered vital teaching supplies bought with funds raised by pupils and parents.

Her gifts to the school included boxes of pencils, pens, paints and art materials, Franche polo shirts and sun caps, as well as books and teaching aids.

Miss Jew described the week-long trip to the school in Mkunkhu, about an hour from Malawi’s capital Lilongwe, as “life changing”.

She said: “To say it was a contrast with school life in Kidderminster is an understatement.

“The conditions are hot, dusty and basic; the risk of illness and disease, particularly malaria, is ever present. The school can only afford to provide lunch once a week – a simple bowl of maize porridge.”

But she found a joyful community eager to help themselves, to learn and to make a better life.

Her main role was to “teach the teachers” as part of a charity programme organised by Love Unite Support, a foundation supporting the region.

She added: “The teachers are paid in maize, the local crop, and they have no formal qualifications. Methods of teaching rely on rote learning. Children recite facts and figures until they know them by heart, and are yes and no questions.

“It was enlightening – for some children in the older classes it was the first time they had been asked to express themselves in this way and they found it difficult – they were used to a more robotic style of learning.

“They seem to have so little compared to us, yet their love of life and gratitude for what they do have is really inspiring. It was life changing, really.”

Children and parents from the Franche school helped raise more than £1,000 to pay for gifts to the school.