HEADTEACHER Josie Butcher will be faced with a classroom crammed with 140 pupils when she swaps West Dorset for West Africa.

The Powerstock head is jetting out to Ghana at the weekend to teach in the village's twin school in the tiny village of Gbullung.

She says she will need all her educational training and 17 years of experience to cope with the huge class sizes and youngsters who are keen to learn but don't even have paper, pencils and other facilities which are just taken for granted in Powerstock.

Josie will be travelling with parent Catherine Batten - who set up the school link originally - and her 11-year-old daughter, Hattie, who is a pupil at Powerstock Primary School.

She said: "Catherine has already been over to Ghana and visited the school. She took them pictures of the children here to show the youngsters there where we come from and really got the link set up. When she asked me if I'd like to come this time I was delighted.

"We will be over there for two weeks and I will be called upon to do some teaching. I'm already thinking about activities that we can do - because I've been told there are no pencils or paper in the school.

"I think it is very hard for us here to relate to what it must be like in a school in Ghana. They have so little and yet children there are desperate to go to school.

"I think we are all going to learn a great deal and we'll have lots to share with the children in Powerstock when we return."

The lessons Josie is planning to teach in Ghana will be based around the theme of food and farming - because they are issues that both communities have in common.

She said: "We have already been told we will have to dance at the welcoming ceremony when we arrive and I'm a little nervous about that."

As well as promoting the developing link between the schools Catherine, Hattie and Josie will be taking more than £400 to spend on books for the school. The cash was raised through various fundraising events organised by the school and Josie's church - Holy Trinity in Weymouth.

Josie said: "We hope this will just be the beginning of a really thriving link between Powerstock and Gbullung."