During May half-term, fifteen girls from Year 9 at Alton Convent School travelled to Hamelin in Germany to visit their pen pals. For the past two years, the girls had been writing letters and emails to each other and were now excited to meet their friends face to face. To break the ice, they enjoyed outsized ice-cream sundaes in a local icecream-parlour. Soon a mixture of German and English was used to find out more about each other.

The next few days were spent in the historic centre of Hamelin. The Musical "Rats" on the market square were enjoyed by all and reminded us of the story of the Pied Piper who once freed the town of a rat plague.
Hamelin has a lot to offer, but it was their German pen pals together with their English teacher and their parents who made our girls' stay so special. Together, they  explored the partner school Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium, went Bowling, visited the traditional glass blowing workshop, spent time on the banks of the river Weser and played table tennis. One trip organised by the German parents led us to Bodenwerder were we learned about the Baron von Münchhausen. Telling stories made him famous as the lying baron.

This year’s Inter-House rounders competition could not have had a better afternoon. All of year 5 and 6 participated in representing their school house. Sporting my “naff” team names from the Pumpkins to the Artichokes, all 6 teams played against each other on the 3 pitches officiated by Miss Orbell, Mrs Bloem and me. In the early rounds, the Artichokes looked the strongest with India and Josh creating good strikes and Tom playing his part. They nearly came unstuck against a determined Penguins, who began to show good team work. The Pumpkins had the best bowler in the competition in Jo. The Anteaters showed their steely resolve by winning the final match against the too confident Penguins 4½ to 4 to stop the furry or feathery critters winning the championship, After Cherries humiliating defeat at the hands of the Cucumbers they bounced back with a run of victories especially gaining the scalp of the Artichokes, Harry C timing the ball with perfection in scoring 2 half rounders. However at the end of the competition the Artichokes secured 13 points, only with that defeat, whilst three other teams having 11 points.