French Exchange - last day in Lille!

Today, whilst Year 9 and 10 pupils attended a few more lessons with their partners, Year 12 students spent more time with Primary School children. As well as acting as classroom assistants, they did some presentations on French people's favourite topics of interest: British food, the Royal Family, school uniforms, London transport and famous landmarks.

They absolutely loved the attention paid to them.

(Unfortunately, we did not manage to make it to every classroom where 6th Formers were helping - apologies to the students who do not feature on this blog).






In the afternoon, Miss Streeter organised a photography competition in the centre of Lille for Year 9 and 10 students.



She was absolutely overwhelmed with the quality of the entries submitted. Here are a few sample pictures taken by Aidan, Nathan, Ollie and Tim.

After the last evening with families, we will be saying goodbye to the French and to Lille before returning to Tomlinscote tomorrow.

We are all looking forward to March when the French party will be coming over and we will be able to share all different aspects of our home and school life with them.

A bientôt.

German exchange - Montag, Tübingen

After a brief meeting at school, all 29 students made their way to the train station with Herr Bystricky from the RBG. We boarded the train and arrived in Tübingen with plenty of time to meet our tour guide, Elizabeth. We walked up and down many hills, got some pictures of the view over Tübingen and were shown other points of historical interest in the town.

After the tour, the students had some free time to get their lunch and spend the last of their money, before we headed to the meeting point for the Stocherkahnfahrt (punting!). After climbing precariously on to the boat, the two boats set off, professionally punted by our two guides. 

There was some rocking but all stayed safe and dry, and even had time to chant at one guide who Jacob decided to nickname 'Günter' which he loved! 

We then had some free time in the park before heading back to the train station and the students were then met in Wendlingen to spend their final evening with their partners.

Will there be lots of tears tomorrow....we'll have to wait and see! 

French Exchange - day in school and a visit to Paris

On Thursday, students got to sample the French education system first-hand and compare with the British experience. In terms of starting and finishing times, I believe Tomlinscote won hands down. A day with 8 lessons, starting at 8.00 and finishing at 17.40 did not go down too well with all students...

Still, they got to share their expertise of the English language with French pupils.

The day was also an opportunity for Miss Streeter to display the entries from the Franco-British photography competition that she organised in March. The pictures are on show in the foyer of the Lycée for staff and students to enjoy.

Today, we all embarked on a day trip to Paris in the sunshine! After an early 7.00 departure, students enjoyed seeing the main landmarks such as the big Eiffel scaffolding, the Assemblée Nationale, the Invalides palace, the Elysée Palace and the Arc de Triomphe, which we climbed all the way to the top.

 

Quite obviously, the day ended up being too much for some...

 

To celebrate 15 years of collaboration with M. Daullet, M. Mahieu, Executive Principal for NDP consortium, marked the occasion with a get together of all staff involved. Looking forward to another 15 years of exchanges!

Students are now with families for the weekend. More news on Monday.

A bientôt.

German Exchange 2014 - Friday

Today was spent in Heidelberg. 2 trains and a bus ride later we finally arrived in the Altstadt in Heidelberg ready for the guided tour.  Amongst other sites, the students enjoyed visiting the former 'Studenten Karzer' (student prison) which we were told was not actually seen as much as a punishment in the early 20th century (students were still given beer and wine to drink!)

After lunch and some free time, we boarded the funicular railway to visit the famous castle. We were lucky with the weather and had a beautiful view of the river Neckar. Inside the castle we also saw 2 huge barrels, one of which was 7m high and built in 1751.  It holds 220,000 litres of wine! 

Some energetic members of the group (7 students out of 32!) opted to walk down the 315 stairs to the bottom, whilst the rest of enjoyed the return journey on the funicular railway.  After another short bus journey back to the 'Hauptbahnhof' we arrived back in Wendlingen to be greeted by the German partners.

Students will spend the weekend with their host families and we look forward to a day out in Tübingen on Monday with punting and some last minute souvenir shopping.

Inside the oldest part of the university.

German Exchange - in the paper

We're in the Wendlinger Zeitung with a huge colour picture and a long report about our stay and our visit to the mayor!

The title reads 'Schüler der Tomlinscote School kommen gerne nach Wendlingen' (we like to come here).