Holy Family Catholic School has played host to visitors from Cameroon as part of a project to bring together schools from across the world.

Head teacher Dr Ngueti Michel and assistant head Winston Fomukom spent several days in Keighley.

They run the Bafoussam Government Bilingual High School, in Cameroon's West Province, which caters for 4,000 English and French-speaking pupils.

Their visit formed part of a three-year initiative called "Dreams and Teams", set up by the British Council and the Youth Sports Trust.

This is designed to enable schools from different countries to share values and ideas - with a particular emphasis on sports participation.

The scheme has so far linked schools in Britain with partner schools in Russia, China and several African countries, including Cameroon.

Staff from Holy Family will pay a reciprocal visit to Cameroon in May and both schools are also planning pupil exchanges.

Mr Fomukom, who has been in teaching for 17 years, said: "The aim of Dreams and Teams is to build leadership qualities in young men and women using sports as a vehicle."

He said his trip to England was the first time he had travelled outside Cameroon's borders.

"I felt London was quite artificial but to me Yorkshire seems a lot more natural," he added. "As a geography teacher I have studied the British Isles and I enjoy the rolling landscape here in Yorkshire.

"In Cameroon we do follow the British education system but there are some differences.

"At my school there is an average of 70 pupils to a class due to lack of space.

"The education system is very demanding and pupils who fail their exams aren't allowed to move up into the next class, so there are pupils of different ages in each year.

"There are two national languages in Cameroon - English and French. French does dominate, as about 75 per cent of the country is French speaking.

"But those people who have travelled and have read widely know that English is the key to success in the world."

He and Dr Michel were taken on a tour of Holy Family School and were impressed with the facilities on offer.

They also visited Haworth, Malham and Skipton during their stay, most of which involved planning how the school link will work in practice.