Gillian Gibbons, the teacher jailed in Sudan for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear Mohamed, arrived back in Britain today and declared: "I never imagined this would happen. I am just an ordinary primary school teacher."

Ms Gibbons, 54, touched down at London’s Heathrow Airport at 0700 GMT. She had spent more than a week in jail in Sudan when she was found guilty of insulting Islam after allowing her seven-year-old pupils to give the bear the same name as the sacred prophet.

Looking happy to be home, Ms Gibbons added: "I went out there to have a bit of an adventure and got more of an adventure than I bargained for, I don't think anybody could have imagined it would snowball like that."

Hugging her son John, the teacher said she was glad to be back and was in total shock. "I’m looking forward to seeing my family and friends and to have a good rest. It has been an ordeal but I was well treated in prison and everyone was very kind to me.

"I am very sorry to leave Sudan. I had a fabulous time. It is a beautiful place and I had a chance to see some of the countryside. The Sudanese people I found to be extremely kind and generous and until this happened I only had a good experience."

The teacher was sentenced to 15 days in jail last week but was released early after diplomacy by the Muslim peers Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi secured a pardon from the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir yesterday. The teacher had been released to embassy officials within minutes of an announcement that she was to be freed on the orders of the President.

Ms Gibbons told reporters at Heathrow: "I wouldn’t like to put anyone off going to Sudan, in fact I know a lovely school that needs a new year two teacher. I would like to thank Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi and I would like to thank all the people who have worked so hard to secure my release and make my time more bearable."

Looking tired but excited on the flight from Khartoum to Dubai, she chatted with an embassy security guard and the two peers who lobbied for her freedom, planning what to do on her return. A fellow business-class passenger said: "The four of them talked almost the entire time, laughing happily."

Lady Warsi, speaking on the Emirates flight from Khartoum, told The Times: "This has been a very difficult week for Gillian and she has come out of it amazingly well. We all just feel delighted and privileged in playing our part in securing her release, and we are all looking forward to getting home."

For dinner, cabin staff provided Ms Gibbons with Arabic mezze, followed by grilled Iranian chicken kebabs. At one stage Lord Ahmed came dangerously close to joking about Mohamed and the teddy bear, but Ms Gibbons interjected: "We don’t joke about that any more." Towards the end of the four-hour flight she pushed back her seat and tried to doze.

On arrival Ms Gibbons was taken straight to a waiting limousine with tinted windows. Cabin crew formed a protective ring to shield her from the eyes of other passengers.

For the second leg of her journey home, the party was upgraded to first class. There was one last hiccup before she finally set foot on British soil, when, about 300m above the runway at Heathrow, her Emirates flight via Dubai suddenly starting climbing back into the sky, banking steeply.

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