A MIDDLE school in Somerset which was the only one in the county chosen to take part in a BBC Olympics project has welcomed a teacher from its Russian twinning school.

Fairlands Middle School in Cheddar is one of 45 successful UK applicants selected out of thousands that registered for the Olympic Dreams Project.

The school has now been twinned with an international school in Yekaterinburg in central Russia where the Olympic high jump athlete Ivan Ukhov studied.

This week staff and pupils welcomed Anastasia Kuchukbaeva, a teacher from the link school to the village to find out about their education system as well as discussing cultural differences between the two schools.

She visited the caves and the Cheddar Gorge before travelling back to London to fly home.

The BBC and British Council launched the Olympic project to find schools that are excited about the 2012 games and want the chance to link with schools in other countries.

Over the next two years it will support teachers to develop school-to-school partnerships and encourage pupils to share creative work inspired by the London Olympics.

Pupils from Fairlands submitted a range of work when applying for the project, including pupils’ questions to an international school and Olympic athlete, and work showing their dreams and goals.

They will now work with pupils from their Russian counterpart school through the BBC World Class team to follow the story of an Olympic athlete.

Sarah Boyes, international coordinator at Fairlands, has also recently returned from the Olympic Dreams Live conference at the British Museum in London, which saw schools from all over the world uniting together.

She said: “We are delighted Fairlands Middle School is one of the three Olympic Dreams World Class Schools in the West Country and are representing Somerset.

“Over the next 18 months we hope to see our twinning with Yekaterinburg blossom and build into a long lasting partnership”