A teacher has been turned into a princess by African tribal leaders.

Sandra Chadwick was surprised and delighted by the honour, bestowed on her during a visit to a school in the Qumbu district of the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

The trip was typical of her school's global ethos, which has earned them two separate awards this week.

Hove Park School, where Ms Chadwick leads special needs education, was presented with an International Schools Award by the British Council and a Times Education Supplement International School of the Year award in recognition of its multiple links and ties to schools and communities across the world.

Ms Chadwick five-week stay in South Africa was part of the the Link Community Development programme. She helped set up a library, time tables, advised teachers and pupils on attendance and other ways to improve their school.

Ms Chadwick, who has three grown-up children, stayed with the leading family in the village and impressed them so much they invited her to become a member of the family.

The tribal chief, who is known as a prince, presented her with a traditional tribal outfit and declared her a princess of the Matiwane family.

Ms Chadwick said: "I was completely overwhelmed. They were such lovely people. It's funny because in some ways they were so completely different to everything I know and yet there were so many similarities as well."

She now keeps in touch with the family and the school principal by text message and hopes to set up correspondence between the village's children and those at Hove Park.

This was just one of more than 60 international projects Hove Park has planned for the next few years.

The school, which is a specialist language college, has links with 11 countries across every continent: Ghana, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Greece, South Africa, Russia, Chile and the Philippines.

This year alone pupils travelled to Thailand in the wake of the tsunami and to India and the school is currently looking into organising an expedition to Kenya.

Headteacher Tim Barclay said: "Our relationships with schools in other countries give pupils another dimension to their studies and shows they are all linked together."