Exchange visits may normally be reserved for pupils, but that didn’t stop 22 Israeli teachers from flying to the UK last week to meet their British counterparts.

The teachers, from 11 schools in the Galil in northern Israel, came as part of UJIA’s Schools Partnership Programme, which is run in partnership with the Jewish Agency.

The scheme links the Israeli teachers to 11 Jewish schools in the UK, including Brodetsky Primary School in Leeds, King David High School in Liverpool and JCoSS in Barnet, and aims to help educators from each country to improve their teaching and planning skills by sharing ideas.

Nitza Schwartz, a senior teacher at Ort Shlomi High School, said that coming to UK had improved her teaching. “It really makes a difference to meet face to face,” she explained. “I know that what I have learned will make a real difference to our students lives.

“It brings us a lot closer,” added Liraz Nachmias, senior teacher at the Ulpana Bnei Akiva. “The programme is a wonderful way of strengthening connections between my students in Israel and Jewish students here in the UK.”