German exchange - a day in school.

A day in school today, very long for many - 10 lessons, starting at 7.45 and finishing at 5.20!  Some enjoyed helping out in English lessons, in between attending a variety of subjects.


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German Exchange -arrival at school.

Our students were very excited to see their partners again, lots of shouting, squealing and hugging!

Day 2 in Germany.

Both coaches had a great time today.  The weather is absolutely lovely, sometimes a case of chase the shade.

Coach 1 - visited a German school first, they took part in a variety of activities, practised their German and thoroughly enjoyed themselves, making new German friends in the process.  Then a visit to the local town and some eating and shopping time.  Then off to the Deutsche Eck.

Coach 2 - First to Boppard and up on the Chairlift.  The views were amazing, some time for a drink and ice cream at the top.  Then lunch and shopping in town and then a boat trip along the river.  Beautiful views again. 

Germany - International Week 2017

After a long day we arrived safely at the hotel.  After dinner, the German speciality of Schnitzel, we went for a walk along the river and admired the scenery.  Looking forward to a full programme tomorrow.

Year 7 German trip - Day 4

Students are back at the hostel after a fun day at Phantasialand.

We would like to reassure all families that the incident that took place in a German cinema today was in Viernheim, more than 100 miles away from our school party.

Year 7 German trip days 2 and 3

 

During days 2 and 3, students had the opportunity to visit the Haribo factory sale, explore the city centre, enjoy a river cruise to Königswinter, use the railway to travel up the mountain, play football on a nearby pitch in the evening, visit a school (that looks incredibly like Hogwarts!) and sample some of the local food like Wiener Schnitzel. Very busy days!





Year 7 German trip

With our new German friends. We had a lovely time at the school and some will stay in touch. We then went into town.

Year 7 trip to Germany

We have arrived safely at the youth hostel in Bonn, and our students are enjoying themselves.
Unfortunately we are unable to upload photos at present.  All are looking forward to the activities tomorrow.

A Swabian Town - by Alana in Esslingen

Sunday was spent travelling to Esslingen, a town where a small castle nestled on a hill overlooking the sprawling vineyards and timber-beamed houses.

My exchange partner, her family and I started off by exploring the castle walls from where we could see the whole of Esslingen and the surrounding hills. We descended the 400 or so steps to the town below and criss-crossed through alleyways until we arrived at the town plaza. Entering the church, which was the focal point of the plaza, we admired the ornate carvings inside before ambling through the rest of the town.

The old town itself was very cute, with willow trees and oddly-shaped houses hanging over the sparkling brooks below. Overall this typical German town with its medieval houses and fantastical trees was a walk back to the past, and very enjoyable!

Esslingen am Neckar

German Cuisine - by Leonie in Wendlingen

In Germany the food and the way they eat it is very different. In my exchange partner's house, for breakfast I have a selection of food to choose from. It's like an all-you-can-eat buffet! I can choose from a selection of Brötchen, pretzels, yoghurt, cereal or pain au chocolat.

Breakfast in Germany

 For lunch, they usually like to eat a hot meal. When I had lunch with my host family on Sunday, I could choose from either rice or pasta to eat with chicken and vegetables. They also make their own 'Spätzle' at home, which are a bit like noodles.

Schwäbische Linsenteller - lentils, sausages and 'Spätzle'

 For dinner, they don't usually eat as much. Yesterday after going bowling, I ate several little parcel-like sausages wrapped in pasta (a regional specialty called Maultaschen). Es war sehr lecker!

Maultaschen - another Schwäbische regional specialty

Overall I have been very well fed and we will all probably be coming back slightly fatter than when we left. Emma thinks we will have to roll her onto the plane!

Update from Baden-Württemberg

The first five days of the Y10-11 German exchange have absolutely flown by! We have all enjoyed a packed schedule of activities organized by host families and by the fantastic teachers at our partner school, the Robert-Bosch-Gymnasium in Wendlingen. Here are some snippets of the students' reflections on their experience so far, with photos and longer articles by Leonie and Alana to follow.

Samstag - Saturday

Hallo aus Deutschland! When we sit down to have dinner I am always amazed at the amount of food there is. My favourite German food is Schnitzel. The people here are very kind and take really good care of their guests. - Emma

Me, my exchange partner and her mum walked around Wendlingen town then bought some sugared almonds, which only come out at Christmas, and had an ice cream. The town looks different to ours, with lots of old buildings. - Sarah 

Sonntag - Sunday

Hallo England! Am Sonntag sind wir ins Ritter Sport Schokolade Museum gegangen. Es gab viele 'vapour stations', zum Beispiel Marzipan, Rum, und Hazelnuss. Ich habe Schokolade gegessen, da ich Schokolade liebe!  - Eloise 

On Sunday we went to watch my partner Max play in a handball match. His team lost but it was a good experience. Then we travelled to lake Bodensee. The lake borders Switzerland, Austria and Germany. We took a cable car up a mountain there and the views were amazing over the lake and the Alps. We were 1073m up. Es war sehr gut. - Luke 

We went to the Porsche museum on Sunday. It was very fun and interesting. There were lots of nice cars. Mein Lieblingsauto ist ein Nissan GTR. - Adam

Hallo England! The Porsche museum was very interesting. It's just like Mercedes Benz World, although less interactive. The museum had a simulator that we thought was broken for the fact that we all crashed about ten times each. Das Museum war sehr gut! - Callum

We went to a Spa on Sunday. It was really fun and relaxing. I have never been to something like that before and it was a great experience. We took some cool pictures to share with our friends when we get back. Ich liebe Passionsfrucht. - Darcie

Montag - Monday

My partner Sofie and I made pancakes. Ich liebe Pfannkuchen. We cut bananas and red currants for the topping and Sofie's mum had homemade honey. Pfannkuchen sind sehr gut. Lecker! - Gen

I went to a meeting with my exchange partner. At this meeting, people who have been bullied can sort out problems and it allows them to have fun. This was once a year and people could stay there overnight. Es war interessant. - Melissa

The school was very different to English schools because in their breaks they can leave school and if a teacher is away, they all get the period off. They finish school at different times too. Some days they finish at 1pm and some days they finish at 5:20. Ich mag die Schule. - Jonathan.

Dienstag - Tuesday

On Tuesday night, I went bowling with the other exchange students. We had lots of fun with each other and I won! Es machte Spass, weil ich mit meine lustige Freunde war. - Matt 

On Tuesday we all went to Ulm and went up the world's tallest church spire. We also did some shopping in our free time. I have also been horse riding after school. I wasn't allowed to canter but I still enjoyed it. - Gabby

I have been on a segway tour, joined in lessons at the German school, tried some new German foods and done a lot of shopping! I'm really looking forward to our guided tour of Tubingen this afternoon. - Meghan

German trip- Coming home

Both coaches made in onto our ferry in the nick of time due to the impeccable behaviour of the children going through border control. As we've come accustomed to, Tomlinscote students are the best behaved on the boat.

Provided we don't run into too much traffic we should get home on time.

Germany

Germany was amazing! We had so much fun and the fact that we were in a different country made it ten times better. My favourite part was the food that I tried because I found new foods that I will now eat at home!

By Isabella Kelly

In Germany we did lots of things and had lots of fun!the day I enjoyed the most was phantasia land. There were lots of things to do but not that much time to do it in. 

By Megan Treece

I thought getting up for the German trip would be hard and I would sleep on the coach, but it turned out I didn't as I was too excited. I enjoyed the independence we were given and the meals were good. My favourite part of the week was phantasia land as I'm a rollar coaster lover and the rides were similar to thorpe park.

By Megan Alcorn

This trip has been amazing for the whole time. There has been some incredible things the see and do. One of the best experiences was the castle because we learnt loads of new infomation about the history of Germany. But we have to thank the teachers and staff who helped us have these amazing opportunities and have some brilliant amounts of fun. We would also like to thank the people who worked at the Hotel Anker. One of the other things we did was go to Phantasialand where despite lots of us students had fears of rides and rollercoasters, many of us really tried putting an effort in to make the day more enjoyable for the others. Once again we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who made everyone have probably the most fun so far at Tomlinscote.
Dan W and Matt S

Germany last day

After a lovely meal of Frikadellen, Bratkartoffeln und Erbsen last night (meatballs, panfried potatoes and peas) we had a disco during which some people showed off their special dance skills. 

Now we're on our way back home: soon we had to say goodbye to the pretty vinyards along the river Mosel and have a day of travelling on the Autobahn. But we have a plentiful supply of DVDs and music, and I'm sure we'll be dancing and singing along to our new favourite German song a few more times! 

Here are some more comments about the trip:

The week has been amazing! Ich liebe Deutschland jetzt! (Now I love Germany) It has been a great experience and I've learnt more about the German lifestyle. Ich finde meine deutsch Freunde toll! My German pen pal was very nice and friendly, we also exchanged contact details and took many photos together. The school was very fun as they were very welcoming and even made a spread of waffles for us-which were very delicious. Also, shopping in the town was great as we got to use our German vocabularly with the people in the towns. I think that when I go to England I'll still be saying- ich möchte eine kleine Pommes bitte! PhantasiaLand was also sehr lustig. One thing I liked most about this trip was that we were given a lot of responsibilities and freedom to go round in groups but were also safe every second of the trip. I  would love to come back and do the German exchange in year 9!

Beau McDonald

This week was super und unsere deutschen Freunde waren fantastisch! Ich finde es toll und interessant!

Lena H,  Hattie P & Caitlin F 😘

It's been a fantastic week: the children have been a pleasure to be with: enthusiastic, well-behaved, punctual and  easy-going. They had a great time all round! 

If you enjoyed these updates on the blog (which have been quite a challenge due to some technological troubles) do leave a comment!

More photos will be uploaded soon on the shared area on the school network...

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Isabelle!

Today it is Isabelle's birthday! If you can't spend your birthday with your family, the next best thing is probably to go to a theme park with lots of friends, followed by a nice meal with cake and 120 children singing for you and finished with a disco!

Herzlichen Glückwunsch!

Germany - the food

See below for a group photo from coach 2. Can you spot your child?

Here are some more reports on the food:

So far I have found all of the soup amazing as it has a variety of different flavours. My personal favourite was the first soup that we had. I think that it was  a broccoli cheddar and carrot soup. These flavours were amazing as they mixed well together and created  a tremendously good dish. 

My favourite main meal was the pasta that we had on Wednesday. The sauce was a meat sauce that had beef and mince in it.  The pasta was amazing because it was freshly cooked and warm. 

I haven't had any of the delicious puddings as I was to full up on the delicious food. Overall it was amazing! Thank you. 

Lewis C

Our food over the week has been great as there was a variety of unique German food. So far we have had meatballs, pasta, schnitzel and bratwurst. 

George F

Phantasialand report

Phantasialand was one of the best parts of our trip to Germany. Our favourite ride was the colorado adventure because it was really fast and you got to go in the dark where you couldn't see any thing (so you couldn't tell which way up you were!)

We had to stay in groups of four but we lost some people so we went around with Miss Hutchison, Mr Gamble, Mrs Sparkes and Mr Rollason which meant we could still go on the rides even if we lost some of our group. 

Phantasialand was the best day of the trip and  I wish we could do it again !!!

Marisa and Amber

Germany Day 4: Phantasialand!!!!

Coach 2 - day 3 :at the school & phantasialand 1

We  went to a German all-girls school and we met some girls and translated stuff that was on the sheet. After that we played football, it was such banter! Then we had some food including waffles.  It was so nice !!  Finally we had a tour around the whole school. It was really big!

Written by Adam Teale 

We went to the school and it was a girl school you hade to pair up with a German person and tell them about yourself. I made a few friends. I think that my group was very naughty and we play knock down ginger and run away but it was fun. Later we had to do sport with them. It was a lot of fun at that school!     

   By joshua crawle young 7M

Now both coaches are at Phantasialand in beautiful sunshine! For some children the fun started with a slight delay! Let this be a warning for future travellers: we mean these threats of taking time off the theme park for silly behaviour...