Posting by Deborah Smail-Ross, Modern Language teacher at the College
The Modern Language department at The Sixth Form College, Solihull offers five languages and great links with schools and other organisations for those subjects. This includes German, for which we have a partnership with a school in Main-Taunus-Kreis near Frankfurt , called Albert-Einstein-Schule.
Our A level German students took part in an exchange partnership with this school last week and they really enjoyed the week-long trip. The students stayed with German pupils of a similar age from Albert-Einstein-Schule and enjoyed a range of activities, all aimed towards helping the students improve their spoken German and to embrace German culture.
Activities included joining in the lessons of their partners at school, as well as a variety of visits and outings. They enjoyed a line dancing lesson, a ten-pin bowling outing and met with the Mayoress of Schwalbach am Taunus, while also enjoying an afternoon in Frankfurt visiting the Frankfurt Christmas Market.
The students also enjoyed a visit to Wetzlar, which involved a tour of the town ‘in the footsteps of Goethe’, who wrote his famous ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’ after living in the town shortly as a newly qualified lawyer.
In addition, the students also visited the multi-national Continental Teves factory, with which the College has links. The students watched brake components being made by robots and heard presentations from the apprentices and from a former student of the College, Jack Wilson, who is currently spending his university year abroad at the company.
The trip was a huge success. The students learnt a lot and really developed their spoken German, as you do when you immerse yourself in the language. They also took part in some really fun activities and made some new friends, many of whom I am sure will keep in touch. We thank the Albert-Einstein-Schule and Continental Teves for accommodating us on our trip.
A return exchange visit is planned in the New Year. The German students will be visiting the College in February and apprentices from the Continental Teves factory will participate in a 3-week training programme at the College later in the summer term.
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