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Derwendeg Primary School, in Cefn Hengoed, is one of three schools in Wales to be selected as part of an exchange programme that will see Greek and Spanish pupils visit the county to share their culture.

The three-year project began last year with hopes that children visiting other countries will gain new experiences to benefit their physical health.

Teacher Anne-Marie O’Connor explained to Caerphilly Observer: “Obesity is a major problem. We carried out a survey before the project asking parents and children what their thoughts were on changing their eating habits and why some found it so difficult.

“We discovered that for most, a change would be welcomed, but cost and ideas for new recipes was the biggest turn off.”

In response to this, Anne-Marie suggested that creating a cookbook that would feature healthy recipes from Welsh, Spanish and Greek cultures would be a great idea in promoting a healthy diet.

As well as nutrition, the schools agreed that an active lifestyle should be another focus point of the project:

“We think we can learn a lot from each other. The children are beginning to understand that they live completely different lives to us, with sustainability and activities having a higher priority,” said Anne-Marie.

For now, no pupils are yet to meet in person. However, teachers from Spain and Greece are visiting next week for the next round of talks.

The plan is that next year three students from each primary school will visit either Spain or Greece and stay for a week.

Anne-Marie spoke about how keen the children are to get involved and said: “They’re really enjoying it so far. For now we’ve been sending videos of the pupils back and forth. For example, last week a Spanish class sent us a dance that we learnt and sent back.

“We’re going to record the kids doing a traditional Welsh folk dance. It will be great fun.”