TEACHERS and pupils from Dorset have travelled to Romania to learn about life in the country.

Knighton House School has joined forces with other schools from nine European countries who are all involved in the EUniting Voices project run by Comenius.

Two year seven pupils and two members of staff from the school recently visited Romania to learn about the different culture in the country, as part of the project.

The two year project is funded by the European Union and aims to promote awareness of the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity within Europe and to understand the need to combat prejudice and racism.

Children at Knighton House have had the chance to travel and get to know other European people and cultures while also working on cross-curricular topics at school to share with the other students. Each country hosts a visit, giving pupils the opportunity to experience life in another country.

So far 19 Knighton House girls have had the chance to travel abroad, visiting other schools in Italy, Spain, Poland, Germany, France and, most recently, Romania.

The pupils and staff members have now returned from an exciting visit to the small rural village of Crivina de Sus in western Romania where they stayed with a local primary school teacher.

They said the rural community was very different to rural Dorset and they often saw families sitting in the fields to watch their cows and would bring them home at the end of the day.

They also visited local schools and orthodox churches and on their last day visited Hunedoara to see the castle that held Vlad the Impaler.

There are two more trips to Turkey and Bulgaria before European guests travel to Dorset when Knighton House will be hosting the final visit in June 2015.