After 18 years of teaching at the bustling Mangotsfield School, Helen Bell fancied a complete change of lifestyle.

And when you're used to working on the outskirts of Bristol, what could be more different than the windswept Falkland Islands?

The 55-year-old food and textile technology teacher made the epic 8,000-mile move with her husband Christopher in September.

"It's another world," she says. "You reach a certain point in life when you fancy a change, and I felt I wanted to do something adventurous while I had the chance. My husband had just retired after a long career with the Ministry of Defence, so it felt like a good time to do it.

"Probably like most teachers, I'd get my copy of the newspaper educational supplements every Friday and sit in the staff room flicking through them wishing I could find a teaching post in some exotic country.

"The Falklands may not be tropical, but as soon as I saw the advert for a deputy head teacher at the Falklands Community School in the capital Stanley, I thought I'd give it a go.

"I ripped the advert, went home and phoned the education department in the Falklands straight away.

"The next day, I had a call from the current head teacher, and after we'd talked I was convinced I had the skills and experience they were looking for, so I applied.

"My husband had visited the islands when he was working for the British Antarctic Survey on secondment from the MoD, and he was keen to return.

"I was so excited by the prospect of seeing a new part of the world, but also by the idea that there were just 3,000 people on the whole of the Falklands. I'd spent 18 years working at a school that had 1,200 students.

"I knew I'd get to know everyone and I felt I could make a real difference to such a tight-knit community."

The following week, Helen attended a slightly surreal job interview.

"The interview took place over the phone," she says, "so I was sitting in my own house. But I still dressed up as if I was meeting the head teacher face to face. I knew I'd be able to get into the interview frame of mind by dressing up.

"It worked – I was offered the job the next day, and I accepted immediately.

"It's a four-year contract, and I expect we'll return to the UK after that – but it's a great adventure for us."

The couple rented out their Bradford-on-Avon home and broke the news to their two grown-up sons Nicholas, 28, and Philip, 26.

"They were a bit shocked at first," Helen says. "But these days you can phone, email and talk in online video chats, so it doesn't need to feel like you're on the other side of the world."

The couple headed to the south Atlantic in September. "It felt like a holiday at first," she says. "We were living out of suitcases for weeks because it took more than a month for the supply ship to reach us which had our containers on with all our furniture and personal things.

"But we were surprised by how quickly we settled in and were welcomed into the community. It felt as if we knew everyone on the island within a matter of weeks."

Her new job was also a real culture shock – with just 140 children in the whole school. "But young people are the same the world over," she says.

"They all have the same worries and anxieties about their lives, families and relationships. In the Falklands, they all have to go over to the UK to finish their schooling and do their A-levels, so they have to be prepared to leave their families at the age of 16.

"Some do this much earlier when they weekly board in Stanley because their homes are 'out in camp' – a Falklands term for the countryside, from the Spanish 'el campo'.

"I find it amazing to see these confident young people ready to fly the nest at such an early age. But that seems to come from island living.

"Education here is very similar as English teaching methods and UK examination systems are used.

"The students are generally very polite and will always say hello when you meet them out and about.

"Of course, you see them quite a lot out of school as Stanley is small. This was strange for me at first – having lived in Bradford-on-Avon and taught in Bristol, I'd never have seen my students outside school in the UK.

"I think pressure on young people to perform their best is even greater here because if they don't reach the required points needed from their GCSE grades they are unable to come to the UK to complete their education.

"Part of what I'm here to do is to support the setting up of more vocational routes to give our students more choice and to support those students who require a more flexible education, encompassing training and work experience while still studying traditional subjects."

Helen has also timed the move quite nicely. Having moved in September, she's been able to have a year with two summers.

She's just enjoyed her southern hemisphere summer holiday over Christmas with a trip to Chile.

"That's one of the amazing things about being in a totally different part of the world," she says. "You can just hop across to places in South America that you'd never have been able to visit from the UK.

"I've also been staggered by the wealth of wildlife down here. You get to see creatures that you could never hope to see in the UK like penguins and elephant seals.

"I've been surprised by how beautiful the Falkland Islands are. I think you inevitably think about 1982 and scenes of war when you hear the name. You think it's going to be barren and cold.

"But actually, we have so many wonderfully warm and sunny days and the landscape is dotted with the most amazing flowers.

"I must have one of the prettiest drives to work each day. I never fail to enjoy the wonderful views of the Falkland Sound.

"And I'm loving the slower pace of life over here. It's like living in the 1950s again.

"There is only one television channel and no television advertising at all, so everything seems far less commercialised – especially Christmas, which wasn't even mentioned until a week beforehand. Then everyone nips out to one of the half-a-dozen shops in Stanley, and that's the Christmas shopping done.

"A lot of the presents are hand-made because so many people take part in tradition crafts out here.

"And rather than having the traditional turkey roast, on Christmas Day everyone ate lamb because the islands are covered with flocks of sheep."

Generally, Helen says people seem more friendly on the islands.

"Our social life is much better here, because everyone knows everyone else," she says. "We've joined numerous clubs and societies and regularly go to dances.

"It feels as if we're in the middle of the most amazing adventure – we're having the time of our lives."