Retired teacher Michael Webber has been given an award for his services to multi-faith education in Gloucestershire.

Mr Webber, 83, the former head of art at JFS, received an honorary fellowship from the University of Gloucestershire.

He has spent the past eight years teaching students aged 6-14 about Judaism, primarily through arranging visits to the Cheltenham Synagogue — where he is secretary — and going to speak at local schools. He does so together with his wife Miriam.

He tells People: “Jewish students are the tiny minority here. The response from the children has been fantastic. We want to bring them up tolerant about other faiths and hopefully they will spread their knowledge to others.”

They moved to Cheltenham 12 years ago.