A former maths teacher at a Keighley school is set to begin the new school year at a boarding school in central Africa.

Robert Denton, 26, finished at Oakbank School in July to take up a two-year post in Rwanda with the international development agency Voluntary Service Overseas.

He will leave on August 31 to teach maths and physics on a local salary. He will be teaching 11 to 19-year-olds at Ndera Boarding School, just east of the capital Kigali.

He said: "I needed a change. I felt like I had learned quite a bit and needed to push myself to move on and put something back.

"At the moment I have got mixed feelings about it. It was an exciting adventure a few months ago. But now it's real, it's a bit scary."

But he said he was looking forward to getting back to basics, teaching children who do not have English as their first language. And teaching children who all want to be at school.

He said his family was shocked at first. "People have not got up to speed with developments in Rwanda. My parents are proud, but a bit worried for me," said Robert.

He said he would try to stay in contact with Oakbank School, especially the French, which is one of the official languages of Rwanda, and humanities departments.

When he returns, he intends to come back and visit the school but he does not yet plan to return to teach there.

He said: "If I knew what sort of person I would be when I came back there would be no point going."

The VSO's work in Rwanda is important because the country's education system suffered from the genocide in 1994, with the loss of many trained teachers and the destruction of schools.