The Alleynian 703 2015

Pretzels, pumpkins and the press

Joint prize-winner George Lewis (Year 11) on his experiences of the exchange – both cultural and culinary F ollowing on from the first successful half of this exchange, we arrived at Stuttgart airport and were met by our enthusiastic exchange partners and their families. Separated from the other English students, I was driven into the picturesque town of Tübingen, my home for the next week. Embracing a variety of German cuisine that I never knew existed, my experience with my host family was a success. The following morning I was lucky enough to witness the Stuttgart pumpkin festival, an event made even more remarkable by the inclusion of both the world’s largest pumpkin and a model of Elvis made out of pumpkins. The school week drew nearer and joining German students in their lessons seemed quite intimidating; but besides the angry looks received for our unfair advantage in their English lessons, everyone was very welcoming towards all of us. Monday’s activities included making pretzels, a

traditional snack from the area, which were completely unlike the snacks offered under the same name in the UK. The next day we continued the project in journalism that we had been working on for both parts of the trip. We had interviewed English people when the German exchange students visited London and we interviewed Germans in Germany before writing an article on our chosen topic. The end of the week featured a visit to the Rittersport chocolate factory, which was draining on my money and my dental health – but did include making our own custom chocolate bars – and a visit to Stuttgart’s fascinating Mercedes museum. As the trip drew to a close, I said goodbye to my exchange partner’s accommodating family and reached the bus stop a final time. Following emotional goodbyes to exchange partners, we departed from Tübingen. I left having experienced something completely unique that also strongly improved my language skills.

Above : BBC journalist Chris Dennis works with exchange students to hone their interviewing skills.

AN EXCHANGE WITH A DIFFERENCE Mr Will Dugdale explains how an idea for an Anglo-German journalism project took off, resulting in an exchange that used news articles to explore cultural similarities and differences O ur annual exchange with the Kepler-Gymnasium in Tübingen entered its 17th year in 2014 and we wondered how we could refresh our relationship. Early in the 2014 academic year, Frau Herlan-Durot, my German counterpart, and I submitted a joint application for funding from the UK-German Connection, the German Foreign Ministry’s arm for funding school-level collaboration. We planned an exchange with a difference: not just a chance to attend school in a different country and complete the ever-popular programme of cultural visits, but this year to undertake work experience placements for Upper School boys and a joint project based on journalism for all. One rejection and one re-draft of our proposals later, we finally fulfilled the lengthy list of funding criteria and were awarded a Partnerships in Learning grant totalling £3,796. During both legs of the exchange, boys teamed up with a partner to investigate a theme suggested by other pupils, writing a 300-word mock comment piece for a newspaper by a strict deadline – in both a German and English, of course. In order to help them conduct interviews in each country and write up the report, a talk by BBC radio journalist, Chris Dennis, and a workshop led by local political reporter in Tübingen, Mario Beißwenger, were arranged.

TRASH !

FOR YOUR

Prizes for the best articles were judged by Chris Dennis with partners George Lewis and Adrian Keil taking the top prize and Dominic Tuffrey and Tim Sonnenmoser were runners-up.

Below : Conducting the interviews in Germany.

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