This is what you get into teaching for. I don't mean the foreign travel with or without the students. Here I mean the students.

We have spent the last two days visiting our partner school and their head Ms Kholoud. We have received a welcome which - yet again - words can't describe.

We began Sunday, after arriving at the school, by witnessing their morning assembly. All 1500 students lined quietly up outside the school and waited for the flag raising. The students then began assembly with some readings and singing of a passage from the Koran. We found out that each student will give the assembly to the whole school throughout the year (take note those of you that complain about Speaking and Listening presentations!).

Like us, the students are in the middle of their end of year exams though they have their exams at the end of every year from Year 4 onwards. The students sit the exams in mixed Year groups to avoid cheating.

The students were dedicated and focused and left their exams to go home immediately to study rather than stay for the treats laid on for us.

The students have thoroughly researched our country and we were treated to a fantastic series of student presentations on the United Kingdom. There were videos, a whole room dedicated to the UK with pictures of the Queen, maps, currency, historical details and food (there was a beautiful fish supper prepared waiting to be tasted).

Not only were they eager to show us what they had learned of our country, they were so proud of their own country and brimming why Jordan was a great country.

These two days rolled into each other tied together with the energy passion and the thirst for knowledge of the students. It was wonderful to see students who understood the liberating magic of education and they were going to drink in as much of that knowledge as possible. They prepared a skit in excellent English accents ("how do you do?" used a lot) and had even learned Morris Dancing!

My moment of the two days in school (and we still have one left!) took place after the first lesson we observed. As a man visiting an all girls school -especially with their cultural values - the students were a little wary of approaching me. As foreigners in the school, they were also wary of Sian but one girl plucked up the courage to talk to her. This was followed by another girl approaching her then another and then another. Within less than a minute, she was swamped with the whole class crowding her desperate to find out about her, the students who had contacted them and life in the UK. Soon all that could be seen of Sian was just a headscarf in the middle of a sea of green uniforms.

The teachers were very eager to find out how we taught. We have a lot of lessons to learn from them! We saw an English lesson and a Physics lesson taught mostly in Arabic and they both would have achieved an Outstanding grade from Ofsted. Leaving aside the students, the teachers used many activities targeted at different intelligences, encouraging active learning, using students to teach each other and playing games. The progress shown in the lesson was staggering. The level that the students showed was a far superior knowledge of the mechanics of their subject (though I can't talk wholly for physics) than many of the students in the lessons I've observed in the U.K. and it was all applied learning so there is a clear link with careers. After all of this, it showed the sheer dedication of the teachers that they asked us to write our thoughts and tips for improving their lessons. Every comment was taken in a positive manner rather than as a criticism as is often the case in the U.K. We could learn not to be so protective of our practice and embrace constructive feedback from our Jordanian partners.

After having the bar set so high, it was our turn to present our school.

A close second of my in-school highlights was in Sian's presentation of her dance group. She did manage to break one of their laptops (not the only mischief she ended up in) but showed our students trying Jordanian dancing. As soon as the girls took their first steps, smiles and joy broke out over the Jordanians faces as a) they saw how well our students had done in their attempts and more importantly b) that their culture was respected, accepted and treasure by our students. A Ministry of Education Official commented that when he watched this it made not only his lips smile but his heart smile... This message will be passed onto the girls as they should be so proud of how they have made our partners feel.

Our time in school has been so warm (literally and metaphorically) and welcoming and is truly touching to see the lengths other people will go to make us feel welcome. We have had people fighting over us to show us their homes, show us their country and find out about us. This, however, is for another blog.