A group of students travelled more than 6,000 miles to visit a Norwich school recently, all the way from Taiwan.

A party of 21 17-year-olds and two teachers from Taichung Girls' Senior High School in Taiwan spent a week soaking up the local culture as guests of Norwich High School for Girls.

Taichung is the third-largest city in Taiwan and the school has more than 2,700 students, so the students were interested to come to our comparatively small city.

During their six-day visit they enjoyed a trip to the Royal Norfolk Show, with the added excitement of a ride on a double-decker bus to the showground. They also visited Norwich Cathedral, Norwich Castle and Cambridge.

An added extra was the chance to participate in Norwich High School's year-12 sleepover in the new sixth-form block on Friday night, where they learned new skills such as the 'hokey-cokey' and the parachute game.

Exchange organiser and teacher at Norwich High, Christine Spurr, said: 'It was great to see our Taiwanese guests teaching our year-12 girls some traditional Taiwanese campfire songs.

'It was an experience for our visitors to immerse themselves in our culture, but also wonderful for our girls to have this opportunity to learn so much from them too.'

The Taiwanese students led a school assembly and shared an informative and entertaining film on Taichung Girls' Senior High School. They visited a range of lessons and were able to participate in activities in subjects such as design technology, music and art.

Roles were reversed in some year-nine and 10 German classes as the Taiwanese students taught the girls some basic Mandarin phrases and how to write their names in Chinese characters.

Jessie Wu, teacher from Taichung, said: 'We are thrilled at what we saw and experienced in UK. Thank you for hosting us and making us feel so at home.

'We savoured the taste of real English life and marvelled at how friendly our British friends are.'

Norwich High School plans to develop this cultural link between the two schools and is hoping to make a return visit in the future.

Is your school organising an unusual event? Call Local Life editor David Freezer on 01603 772418 or email david.freezer@archant.co.uk