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:

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.

On Thursday 29th March 2007 eleven German students from years 9 and 10 travelled to Hameln in Germany to meet their pen pals.

We travelled by train from Alton to Waterloo, and then took the Eurostar to Brussels. From here we went to Köln and then to Hanover until we finally reached Hameln. Although the journey took a long time, we enjoyed travelling through different countries watching the countryside change.

On the next morning, we were met by our German pen pals who walked us to their school called Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium. It was very exciting because we had been wanting to see them and their school ever since we first made contact with them via letters and emails.

Claudia, my pen pal and some of her classmates, showed us around the “Schule”. It was quite different from an English school, but it was very nice. Our German friends were much better at English than we were at German! But I tried my hardest to sound like I could actually speak German!