THE head teacher of a Lake District primary school was due to fly to one of Ghana's leading educational institutions yesterday as part of a project aimed at broadening pupils' understanding of the world.

Head Joyce Hallam and Key Stage 2 teacher Julie Ross, from Hawkshead Esthwaite Primary School, plan to spend a week at the Deks Institute in Tema, which sits on the southern coast of Ghana, 25km away from its capital city Accra.

Last week five children and two teachers from Ghana visited the school - observing lessons, taking part in the school's harvest festival and living with local families.

Hawkshead is one of the first Centres of Excellence to roll out the Department for International Development Global Learning Programme and has been heavily involved in international learning for a number of years. It has also completed a full International Schools award three times.

"Each year we have worked on a range of projects with our links school from climate change to understanding our sense of identity and belonging," said Mrs Hallam, who has been at the helm for nine years.

"Everything we do has a global learning dimension. It's not just about learning about other countries but working together to change and shape the curriculum.

"We are going there to share the global learning programme with them and to show them how to integrate different ways of teaching.

"We live in a global world and particularly in this area people don't have much experience with other cultures. Children have got to learn about empathy and understand their role in the world. It's not just about a charity mentality but social justice and citizenship."

Mrs Hallam says she has taken the threat of Ebola, which has claimed thousands of lives in nearby Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, very seriously - but insists Ghana, where no cases of the disease have been recorded, is a safe country.

"We have looked at World Health Organisation advice and the fact the UN has chosen the country to use as a public base is reassuring," she said.