St Benedict’s German Exchange

Our Fifth Form German pupils travelled to Meschede to stay with their exchange partners, who will in turn come to London later in March. This successful exchange partnership with a German Benedictine school is now in its 14^th year.

Read Robert’s account of the week:

We left King’s Cross St Pancras at about 11:00am, then four trains later we arrived in Meschede at 8:15pm, and I met my exchange partner for the first time.

I enjoyed the exchange because it was a great experience fitting in to German life in the home and at school. On the last day it was sad to leave as we’d all had a really great week. I’m excited to have Luca back in England in March."

On Sunday we did our own activities with our families and spent the day with them. Then on Monday my alarm was set for 5:30am for a 7:30am start at school. However this wasn’t as bad as it seemed, because on most days, school finished at 12.45pm. This meant that we could do activities after school, such as swimming.

Then on Tuesday there was a football match between the exchange students and the home team. It was a close game, but the home team came back from 2-1 down to win the game 3-2.

On Wednesday we went out with our exchange partners and went go-karting. It was a lot of fun and the German kids were very good at it.

On Thursday we met Vicar Jakob and learnt a lot about the history of Meschede. Then we climbed over 300 stairs to view the Panorama Lake.

School is very different in Germany; they don’t have to wear a uniform and it’s less strict. The school food was nice and there was a wide selection to choose from. However, because school ended at 12:45pm, some days students wouldn’t eat at school.

I enjoyed the exchange because it was a great experience fitting in to German life in the home and at school. On the last day it was sad to leave as we’d all had a really great week. I’m excited to have Luca back in England in March.

Robert Jeffries L5 (Year 10)