If you make it to London one of these days, make sure you pop in to Herman ze German for an authentic German fast food experience!
The Currywurst mit Pommes is delicious and you can get Sauerkraut and Rotkohl, too. Those of you who have been to Germany and have tried the fabulous Brezeln or the chocolate bar Duplo - here's the place to get it! The German import Fritz Kola might have too much caffeine for some, but they also have juice and lemonade - and Eiskaffee in the summer.
As staff speak German, you can practise your language skills and order: "Ich möchte bitte..."
Certainly worth a visit - just next to Charing Cross station. Pop in for a Herzlich Willkommen and a Guten Appetit by Herman ze German.
Euphoria by the Swedish singer Loreen, already a hit in several countries across Europe.
In second place the 'singing grandmothers' from Russia: Buranowski Babuschki with Party for Everybody. They sing, dance AND bake biscuits at the same time. The song is slightly reminiscent of Crazy Frog....
Germany came 8th, Italy 9th, Spain 10th, France 22nd. Jedward, with their hair down, only made it to place 19 for Ireland, while the Hump at least did not come last (25th out of 26).
Well done to Sweden who will host next year's show.
Better luck all round for Euro 2012 and the Olympics!
Sra Burford has nominated these particularly hard working individuals from year 8 as Students of the Month
They all have written fantastic texts on daily routine and school which you can admire below!
Shuja Hasnain in 8P for a brilliant piece of work, despite having missed a lot of preparation time due to illness
Rebecca Harrison in 8H for a very high level of grammar, excellent attention to detail and completing exceptional classwork at all times.
Gabi Karaulanova in 8H, who has produced a very detailled and highly accurate piece of work
Stephen Myles in 8H for exceptional attitude to learning and attainment in all lessons
Susie Snell in 8P for her extreme hard work in the preparation for this task, which led to an excellent result
Ed Thompson in 8H, whose shows excellent adjectival agreements and super attention to detail (and who works conistently well in class)
and last, but not at all least: Cameron Williams in 8P who has worked extremely hard to produce a fabulous text on his daily routine and school! and has the honour of being named OUTSTANDING student of the month by Ms Burford!
This
year we are eagerly awaiting two major sporting events: The Olympic Games in London AND
the European Football Championship! This time it will be held in Poland and the Ukraine
from 8thJune to 1st July 2012,
just before the Olympic Games. There will be 16 European teams competing
against each other and I’m sure it will be just as exciting as the Olympic Games,
especially for all football fans amongst us!
As
a German I will be closely watching the German performance and support “my”
team. There are some very talented young footballers in the German squad- Thomas Müller, Toni Kroos, Andre Schürrle,
Holger
Badstuber, Marco Reus- to name just a few.The German team, currently coached by Joachim
Löw, has won the Euro cup three times (1972, 1980 and 1996) and
is keen to play well this year, too. England will
also be participating in the competition and play against countries like
France, Ukraine and Sweden (Group D), while Germany will be looking at opponents
such as Portugal, Denmark and the Netherlands (Group B). Most important, I
hope to see a lot of thrilling games as well as fair play and hope that the
strongest team will win in the end. Football is very popular in Germany, so in
the four weeks in June many people will meet in public places and beer gardens
to watch a number of games on big screens (public outdoor screenings), like they did back in 2006 when the world cup was held in Germany. Let’s hope
for nice weather!
a little German reading comprehension task for you...
Am Samstag, dem 19. Mai spielt der FC Bayern München gegen Chelsea im Champions League Finale 2012! Nach einer roten Karte gegen John Terry haben Chelsea dennoch Barcelona ausgeschaltet. Aber nachdem die Bayern in einem spannenden Elfmeterschießen Real Madrid besiegt haben, sind sie jetzt die Favoriten. Werden Schweinsteiger, Lahm, Neuer und co. zu Hause in München den Pokal gewinnen?
Ten of our Tomlinscote staff are endeavoring to climb three peaks in 24 hours in order to raise money for the charity Cancer Research UK.
During half-term, they will ascend on Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon - all in one day!
The wonderful people are: Mr Bacon, Ms Barnes, Ms Ealey, Ms Holledge, Mr Major, Mr McKay, Mr Regan, Mr Schofield and Ms Towler, as well as our very own German language assistant Ms Karoline Schmied.
Do show them your support around school, and please (get your parents to) give generously for their very worthy cause via this website: http://www.justgiving.com/tomlinscote3peaks
Good luck to them and Thank you! Danke! Gracias! Merci! for your support!
It's that time of year again: Not only is spring in the air (despite the British weather of floods AND a serious draught), but we have also started the countdown to the EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2012! Hooray!
Music fans and MFL fanatics relish this opportunity to listen to foreign language songs, to try to sing along to catchy Finnish tunes using the subtitles and to vote for our favourite European neighbour.
Here are some of this year's entries, to get you into the Eurovision mood and give you a chance to predict the unpredictable winning nation (who'd have thought Lena from Germany would make it two years ago?):
Luckily for us, the biggest countries (and mother nations of the languages we teach at Tomlinscote) already have their guaranteed place in the final on the 26th of May:
This
is the French entry: The song is called Echo (You and I) and the singer is Anggun, an international star who has sold over 2 million album copies around Europe.
Here is the wonderful Spanish song Quédate Conmigo (Stay With Me) by Pastora Soler, who is very well-known in Spain and famous for combining
diverse musical styles like copla, flamenco and "Canción Española" with
pop. She is considered one of the best voices of the Spanish music
scene, and this truly beautiful power ballad might have a good chance of winning!
Representing Germany is Roman Lob with the song Standing Still. He was unknown until he won the German talent show Unser Star Für Baku. Unfortunately the song is all in English. Boring!!! Boooo!
Also Italy is automatically qualified for the final with this song: Nina Zilli sings L'amore è Femmina(Out of Love). The slightly scary Nina has spent most of her life in Ireland and the US, thus singing mainly in English with only a few sentences in Italian. What a shame!
The British entry is, of course, sung by the legend that is Engelbert Humperdinck. The song is called Love Will Set You Free, and is actually quite nice, even though Humperdinck looks about 150 years old (when he's only 101).
Here is a secret tip for you: Will Montenegro make it into the final with this song???
Give it up for Rambo Amadeus with Euro Neuro! "Stay cool like a swimming pool!"
So, who's your favourite? Vote here! Write a comment to let the world know!
For more information on the various songs in the competition and the rest of their videos go to
Sra Metcalfe would like to nominate two whole classes for Student of the Month this time: Her 10 B and 10 C have worked fantastically well on spontaneous conversation and have made huge progress!
Today’s the 1st of May! One could assume it’s just like any
other beginning of the month but I can assure you it’s not. In Germany, Monday
night has been a special one! Every year people in Germany gather on the
evening of 30th April and dance into May (“Tanz in den Mai”) -but
why?
Actually, in the past the 1st of May commemorated Saint
Walpurga, an English abbess who lived between 710 and 779. The 1st of May
was the day on which Walpurga was canonised and a very popular festival in
medieval Europe. The night leading to this feast day was called Walpurgis Night
(“Walpurgisnacht”) after Saint Walpurga. Many people argue that Saint Walpurga
was not the real reason why this day is still remembered. In fact, it is
claimed that “Walpurgisnacht” had already been celebrated as a spring festival by
Germanic tribes long before there were any Christians.
People believed that every year on that night witches from all around
the continent would fly on brooms, pitchforks and animals to meet on top of a mountain
called “Blocksberg”. They would light a big bonfire, dance around it, sing and
have a rowdy party. What for? To worship their master, the devil! He would then
grant them new magical power in return.
This is a Walpurgisnacht celebration in Heidelberg. Foto copyright Andrea Fink
Some people have appointed the mountain “Brocken” in the region “Harz”
to be the setting of this legend. This
is why every year thousands of people come to the „Harz“ region to enjoy these
festivities which are accompanied by various events like concerts and
fireworks. The first organised Walpurgis Night took place in 1896. Today,
people dress up as witches, dance witches’ dances (“Hexentanz”) and there is a
big witches’ bonfire (“Hexenfeuer”).
In other towns and cities around Germany there are numerous opportunities
to celebrate this occasion- mainly in bars, pubs and clubs. On that night people
dance, party and drink May wine (“Maibowle”), an alcoholic cocktail with fresh
fruit and flavoured with woodruff. Dance into May is a very popular way to
welcome the month May and is loved by all generations, especially younger
people. And as the 1st of May is 'Labour Day' and a national bank holiday, everyone can sleep in and recover from the celebrations...
Karoline
This is a picture from 1829 depicting the Walpurgisnacht, as it is mentioned in Johann Wolfgang Goethe's famous play Faust: In the foreground you see Faust and Mephisto walking through the crazy celebrations of the witches.
