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.

On Wednesday we had a story that was read to us by Mr Hoyes. He read a couple of stories to us one of them was Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, that was my favourite. I really liked him reading Great Expectations because I think it was a wonderful story and he put a lot of expression into the story so you could see it in minds eye. After that we got given a poem. The poems we got given were originally stories that had been made into poems.
Then a bit later on we were taught some Spanish with Mrs Swann we learnt a lot like: uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, sies, ocho, nueve, diez. And we also learnt that oi! comes from oiga meaning come over here and talk to me.

Last month, the small Upper Sixth Form German class went on a trip to Germany. Katie is reporting about her experiences during this trip below in German.

„Vom 5. bis 8. Februar habe ich eine Reise mit Dr. Kirchner nach Deutschland gemacht. Für meine A2 Prüfung muss ich ein Gebiet Deutschlands studieren, also die Reise war eine gute Gelegenheit, mehr über die Region Mecklenburg/Vorpommern zu lernen.

Wir haben in einer Ferienwohnung im Seebad Lubmin gewohnt und es gab einen Blick auf die Ostsee – aber nur, wenn es keinen Nebel gab!

For the past three weeks, we have been happy to welcome a student from our partner school in Hameln, Germany at Alton Convent School. Simone is a Year 10 pupil who is keen to improve her English language skills and knowledge about British culture. She was kindly put up in the families of Caitlin, Olivia  and Emily . The three girls and her families deserve huge thanks for their hospitality. Simone attended lessons in various subjects and introduced herself to many German students. She was of great help in the German lessons for all GCSE and A-level students. Here, Simone writes about her stay in England:

On Thursday 19th June the First Form went on the annual day trip to Calais in France. We were all very excited as we got off the coach and onto the ferry. When we arrived in Calais we split up into our groups and enjoyed a walk around town learning about its history and culture. We had a relaxing lunch in the park, then went to the lace museum and admired all the exhibits. Our final task was to buy our tea in groups at the hypermarket to eat on the ferry. Our challenge was to buy the healthiest food possible and ask for things in French.

On 2nd June, Year 6 went to France. We all had a wonderful time going to lots of new places and had lots of new experiences.

During the week, we went to St Valery, an historic town at the mouth of the Somme, Amiens and its cathedral, Le Touquet, a French market town, a chocolate factory and a goat farm. We also did some water sports, such as kayaking and raft building. All these activities were great, but my favourite was the tour of Rue and the quiz about it. Château du Broutel, where we were staying was really nice and friendly.

Our trip to Hamelin was such fun! We spent a couple of days in May in the historic town of Hamelin in Germany to meet up with our German pen pals. For the past year we had been writing letters to our pen pals in Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium and now we were very excited to meet them for the first time. Our pen pals had chosen a nice ice cream parlour to “break the ice” and from there we went to explore the legend of the Pied Piper and followed the “rat trail” through the picturesque centre of Hamelin.

Emily told us: "I loved the facilities the château had. The grounds were brilliant and I especially loved the swing! I enjoyed all the visits but the one I liked the most was the caramel factory. We watched how the caramel was made then after sampling some we all went to the shop to buy more! I also enjoyed the trips to the markets because everyone was so friendly. I loved asking people questions because once you had asked one person you wanted to ask another. I was very excited on the day we went out to buy our own food and make a meal. It was great fun, the food tasted fantastic and we won second prize! It was really touching when we went to the American War Memorial Cemetery because so many people had given up their lives for us. It was so sad to see how many thousands of graves there were and to know how many more people were missing.

After wrestling with the tube barriers, wheelie bags, metro maps and passport control at Eurostar, the Lower Sixth eventually arrived at their hotel in Paris. All the hustle and bustle was soon forgotten once we took a boat ride along the river Seine. We sailed towards the Latin Quarter, gliding past the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay which stunned us into silence. Despite the rain and losing several personal items including many Metro tickets, Paris introduced us to a whole new world.

Enjoying such sights and witnessing the great art masterpieces from Monet and Picasso, viewing their work first hand allowed many to wonder at the context in which such art could be created. The majesty of the classical architecture experienced by visiting the Sacré Coeur and Notre Dame and its contrast with the futuristic, jigsaw design of the Centre Pompidou was also plain to see. Inevitably a visit to the Champs Elysees with its grand, luxurious gold plated stores was a must and only served to highlight the alternate world of the city’s backstreet emporiums. As a shopping capital it didn’t fail although many would agree perhaps their purses did.