Writes Malcolm Pacey, Head of German
We wrote the next page of our German exchange story this past week with the arrival of the latest group from our partner school, Gymnasium Walsrode in northern Germany. Eleven students were accompanied by English teachers Frau Sommerfeld and Frau Steen, with the five girls in the group attending St Helen’s and the six boys Merchant Taylors’.
The important part of an exchange is the opportunity to live for a week with a host-family. This not only gives the chance to practise one’s language skills but, just as vitally, the opportunity to learn how to better adapt to new situations and maybe even experience someone else’s culture and religion.
The Germans spent two very full days in London, visiting sites such as the Tower of London, Covent Garden and the Tate Modern alongside of watching the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace and flying high on the London Eye! The two days in school allowed them the chance to experience what a unique place Merchant Taylors’ is and even saw some of the boys participate in Games on Wednesday.
The German visitors mentioned several differences they noticed: in Germany there’s no school uniform and every day starts earlier (about 7:45am) and tends to finish earlier, too (around 1pm). Many of the Merchant Taylors’ boys invest a lot of time in travelling to school, whereas Walsrode is in the countryside, meaning getting to school is less of a chore. Regardless, the Germans were very impressed by what was on offer and enjoyed the chance to ‘live like a Brit’ for the week!
An exchange is precisely that: our boys will join the St Helen’s girls during the October half-term and will later travel to Germany for the reciprocal component of the exchange. They will stay with their host-partner, attend classes at the Gymnasium Walsrode and get-to-know the nearby city of Hamburg as well as visit the world-renowned Volkswagen Autostadt in VW’s home-town of Wolfsburg!
I would encourage our younger leaners of German to dream-big and consider travelling to Germany with the school at some point in the future! Thanks to the staff who make the exchange happen each year.
