FROschTOsch

by Oliver Flaskamp, (BVA) 

Wednesday, 17^th, 6 o’clock at Düsseldorf Airport. 

Eighteen tired German students from the BvA met in front of the baggage check-in. The two teachers Mrs. Arnold and Mrs. Ehl gave their last instructions for the flight and so twenty German people checked in for the direct flight to Birmingham Airport in GB.

Why did these people fly to Birmingham? The Comenius Project is a gathering of different schools from different countries.  Participating in Kington were the German Bettine-von-Arnim-Gesamtschule, Langenfeld, the Polish Lyceé, Gostynin and our hosts, the British Lady Hawkins School in Kington.

So at 7.30 we, the German students and teachers, were flying to the people who drive on the left side of the road and to the homeland of rain .

At Birmingham Airport the travellers had to change to a bus for our journey to Kington, a little town near the border to Wales.  Most of us wanted to take a nap, but our bus driver was not paying attention to the tired Germans who wanted to sleep in the little bus. Instead he drove on the winding country roads like a Rally-driver.

After a two-hour-bus journey we arrived at the hostel in Kington and carried the baggage in. Then twenty German visitors had a walk through Kington to the Lady Hawkins School. In the school we ate a very good lunch for only £1.40.

In the evening the boys and girls who stayed with a host family went with the English students to their homes.  The others went to the hostel in Kington. All Germans were very tired and went to bed at 8 o’clock.

Thursday, 18^th 

In the hostel we had an “English toast” for breakfast and went to school afterwards. We could choose our lessons at school. I sat in chemistry with the teacher teaching – in English, of course – about plastic compounds. But the teacher didn’t use the board and chalk. Each classroom has a beamer and an interactive board. The equipment is very modern in the English school and I am envious of that modern equipment, I admit.

In the evening we drove to Leominster with little buses (very fast again!). In the “Grove” we played bowling. It was a good evening activity to mix with the other delegations.

Friday, 19^th 

Friday morning the Germans, the Polish group, and some English students went on a trip to Birmingham. We visited the “think-tank”, a learning-by-doing museum. A lot of Germans had a lot of fun in the playground with building bricks and such things .

In the afternoon we were set free to go shopping. A lot of pounds were spent at “Primark”, a cheap but very good shopping centre. Contented about the day, we came back to Kington and went to bed.

 Saturday, 20^th 

On this Saturday the Comenius group went to a special classroom. The High School in Kington has an “Eco-Classroom”. This room is an energy-efficient classroom, with solar collectors on its roof and everything is natural.

In this room the project group had the chance to listen to the online-editor of a local newspaper, the Herefordshire Times.

In the evening we had a trip to a cinema to watch the newest Harry Potter Film: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows”. It was a wonderful small cinema.

 Sunday 21^st 

The German and the Polish groups were in Cardiff, the capital of Wales. We visited the national museum “Saint Faggans’ ”, an open-air museum. Some students looked around in this big museum park, but it was very cold and rainy. So most of us needed a cup of coffee or a cup of tea in the Welsh café of the museum.

In the afternoon we went to Cardiff City, where all students ran to the big shops like Apple, Hollister and Primark, or visited the big Christmas Market. The students spent lots of money at the British shops, and returned to the bus with very, very big shopping bags.

 Monday 22^th

On Monday we got a vivid lesson about Welsh history in the mine “Big Pit”. Our teacher was a former mine worker.  He explained to us that children had to work at this mine in the past. The galleries were very low so that some of us almost had to crawl. It was very astonishing to see what went on in this mine in the past. The workers had horses down there to pull the carts full of coal.

It was the last evening in GB, so we all had a dinner together in a restaurant and finally we had to pack our bags.  

Tuesday 23^rd 

Our last day in Great Britain! We said goodbye to our hosts in Kington and once again had a journey to Birmingham. The Polish group had their flight at 12 o’clock, so our bus stopped at Birmingham Airport at 10 o’clock. We took our bags to the airport and went to a train that brought us to Birmingham City again. We looked at our last pounds and went shopping, some sat in Starbucks or MacDonalds for hours. At 7 in the evening we flew back home, to Germany

by Dominika Lewandowska, class IIE (LOG)

On November 17, 2010 twelve girls in the care of Mrs. Ambroziak and Mr. Bigielmajer set off to “conquer” Britain. After the excitement of air travel we were accommodated in a youth hostel in the charming town of Kington. On Thursday morning we went to our partner school – Lady Hawkins’ School, where we took part in journalistic workshops conducted by the newspaper editor of the “Hereford Times”. Later we were shown around the school buildings and met “Mr Luke” – our countryman, who is a math teacher in Kington. That day was ended with a delicious dinner at the bowling alley integration.

On Friday we went with our German and British friends for an interactive museum of science “Thinktank” in Birmingham. We felt that physics or chemistry might not be so terrible. At the end of this visit to the museum we watched a short projection in the planetarium, then, to our delight, we could have done Christmas shopping at the market and at the mall. The next day, it was time for the joint development project in the partner school. The projects were a great opportunity to talk with German and British students about their country’s culture and leisure activities. Then we went to the film ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows “- in English, of course, but it was not an obstacle to the flooding in the magical world of Harry.

During the trip we visited the museum in St Fagans, Cardiff. In a nice way we could trace the history of Wales, see the buildings in which people lived for centuries. A circular building designed … to cockfights induced a smile on the face because we could make out what it was designed for. Despite the fatigue, we had enough force during shopping in the centre of Cardiff.

On Monday, we saw a Welsh coal mine. We were horrified at the information that in the nineteenth century in that mine eight-year-old children worked for several hours a day, six days a week in total darkness … For a brief moment we visited Hay-on-Wye – the town of books, where antique shops, book shops and shelves full of books can be found every few meters. The culmination of the day was a farewell dinner at Burton’s.

On the return trip we were recollecting that unforgettable adventure, and we were also thinking about our home country. We will remember for a long time great evenings spent with our German friend and with good music. Also we will never forget “wholesale” buying tea at the local supermarket, the taste of fish and chips and our various linguistic slips which sometimes led to funny misunderstandings. It was a pleasure to use in practice English. Although the “country of Harry Potter” is really beautiful it is always nice to return to our homeland, and also our national … pork chop!

Von Charlotte Dwyer and Ellie Smith (LHS)

In unserer Schule treiben wir jeden Tag Sport, weil wir der Meinung sind, Sport wichtig ist . Montags spielen wir Fussball, Dienstags spielen wir Netzball und Federball, Mittwochs spielen wir Kricket, Donnerstags spielen wir Hockey und machen Gymnastik und Freitags spielen wir Basketball und Rugby. Wir finden Sport spannend und spassig! Es ist gut für unsere Gesundheit, und für Teamarbeit.
Die `Lady Hawkins’ School’ hat ein sehr gutes und erfolgreiches Netzballteam in der 10ten Klasse. Wir sind dreimal Meister in Herefordshire geworden und wir haben in unserer Region West Midlands gespielt.
Die Schule gibt Studenten eine Sportskrawatte wenn sie sehr gut in Sport sind. Auch werden Studenten Preise für sportliche Erfolge gegeben.

by Scott Johnson (LHS)

Am Freitagnachmittag 19.11.2010 haben wir während des Comeniustreffens einen Weihnachtsmarkt in Birmingham besucht. Joe und ich hatten eine wunderbare Zeit.

by Henry Beaumont (LHS)

On Monday the 22nd of  November the Comenius group went together to The Big Pit near Blaenavon in Wales. Once we arrived we headed into the Museum and headed into the waiting room for the Underground Tour. We were only allowed down into the mine in groups of around 17. Once we were kitted up into belts and helmets we stepped into the lift and were lowered 90 metres down into the mine. There we were taken around by a tour guide who had himself worked in the mine when he was younger, and it was there that we learned children as young as five worked by opening and closing flaps for elder men coming through with mine carts.

As we went deeper into the mine we were told about the other workers in the mine and the horses. Horses in the early days of mining were used to pull around trains filled to the brim with coal. Once they had been taken down into the mines many horses never saw daylight again. That was until a new law was passed that required that horses had to have semi-regular holidays. Even after holidays had been introduced once horses were too old to work they were killed. Only two horses from the big pit were ever retired.

Towards the end of our tour we were told about the danger of burrowing into the Welsh Ground and Carbon Monoxide poisoning. The Miners used Canaries to test for this Gas and at the end of our tour after riding the lift, in miners’s tongue “the cage”, back up to the surface we met two other canaries before moving on and having our lunch in the miner’s canteen.

After this we went into the virtual mining experience where we saw a miners’ shower room and many historical photos of their  working life.

by Holly Williams (LHS)

In meiner Freizeit tanze ich gern. Ich mache Ballett, Jazz, Gesellschaftstanz und Lateinamerikanischen Tanz. Am Donnerstag mache ich Ballett, am Freitag mache ich Jazz und am Samstag mache ich Gesellschaftstanz und Lateinamerikanischen Tanz. Ich tanze auch am Dienstag in der Schule. Zum Ballett trage ich einen schwarzen Turnanzug , eine weissrosa Strumpfhose und rosa Ballettschuhe. Zum Jazz trage ich schwarze Hosen und ein T-Shirt. Dieses Jahr habe ich an einer Show teilgenommen, die ‘The Tales Of Beatrix Potter’  heisst. Es war gut und spannend! Ich mag tanzen, weil es Spass macht.

by Joseph Attwood (LHS)

On Friday the 19th of November I went to the Think Tank Museum in Birmingham with students from  Tadeusza Kościuszki liceum Ogólnokształcące in Poland and Bettine-von-Arnim-Gesamtschule in Germany. We had a good time and saw lots of interesting things like the rail ton world land speed record car from 1938, which did an amazing 394 mph, an old Spitfire from the second world war , lots of pieces of machinery and a human brain!!!!!. We went to the planetarium which was cool because I learnt about the stars and far off galaxies. Afterwards we went to a café for pizza. After this we went to the center of Birmingham and the German market.  In the Bullring we bought stuff and gave Scott money. Then we got lost for ages. Then we found the German market and went home.

by Jessica Cotton (LHS)

Mein Lieblingshobby ist Tanz, das mache ich jeden Tag. Ich gehe zum Ballett; das ist für mich toll! Ich habe Donnerstags und Freitags Tanzstunden, und am Dienstag in der Schule. Ich tanze mit meinen Freunden, weil sie auch gerne tanzen.
Ich mag tanzen, weil das entspannend und spassig ist. Ich tanze seit zwölf Jahren und ich will für immer tanzen!!
Letzte Woche habe ich neue Spitzenschuhe gekauft, ich war sehr aufgeregt, weil sie mein erstes Paar sind. Spitzenschuhe sind spezielle Schuhe für Ballett, wenn Tänzer Spitzentanz machen; Spitzentanz ist tanzen auf den Zehen. Ich habe einmal Spitzentanzen gemacht, und das war top!
Jedes Jahr machen wir mit der Tanzschule eine Show. Letztes Jahr haben wir in der Show “Beatrix Potter” getanzt, und das war sehr spannend . Ich habe mit den Choreografien geholfen, was für mich super war. Nächstes Jahr hoffe ich, dass ich  bei den Choreografien wieder helfen kann.

von Tom George (LHS)

Jedes Jahr helfen wir in der Lady Hawkins Schule mit einer Charity Veranstaltung Geld für Kinder in Not zu sammeln. Das haben wir dieses Jahr gemacht: Waxen der Beine der College Studenten und des Direktors. Eine Klasse machte einen riesigen Teddybär und füllte ihn mit Geld, die anderen Klassen backten Kuchen oder Kekse.  Einige Schüler haben andere  Aktivitäten angeboten wie: Schwimmen, Schweigen, Wandern, Reiten usw.

Wir haben auch eine Sklavenauktion auf einigen Events gemacht. Die Sklaven waren College Studenten, welche von anderen Studenten erworben werden konnten. Insgesamt haben wir es letztes Jahr geschafft  € 1016,51 einzunehmen.

by Glenda Allaway (LHS)

Every year in Kington, Lady Hawkins’ School holds a Music Challenge Day. This allows pupils from the local primary schools to come into the secondary school and get to know students and teachers there.

The last Music Challenge Day was two weeks ago, but this year we had three days, not just one. The theme was the musical, “Return to the Forbidden Planet”. The cast and crew of the musical held workshops for the pupils of the primary school, teaching them the songs and some of the dances. The workshops happened during school time so that all of the pupils were able to come. Whatever happens at Music Challenge Day it is always lots of fun and you meet many new people there.