Imagine this: You get up in the morning and you pick up your comfiest pair of jeans from your ‘chairdrobe’, you dive into your softest hoodie and sink your feet into your favourite pair of trainers. You arrive in school, chat to your mates, attend 5 lessons or so with short breaks. Around 1pm, that’s it. School day over. You and your friends wander into town to Krispy Kebab, scout out a 1980s Adidas zip up in that new vintage shop and try a few new fragrances. In the afternoon, you do your homework, then have some mates round for card games and a bit of Fifa. On other days, you go to music practice, football training or dance class with most of your year group next to the school. In Germany, this is still very much the life of a student at our exchange school.
Of course, I can mention the many positive effects an exchange can have on your knowledge, academic and social skills: The immersion in a culture and its people is the most valuable experience when you learn a new language. You will increase your vocabulary and improve your listening skills. If you dare from the start, make use of the phrases and scenarios we give you to practise, and can manage the German’s keenness to speak English, you will really get to use your active German and begin to develop fluency. You will experience all that we learn about at GCSE first hand and find many of the harder questions in your GCSE papers more accessible.
You may also open your mind to new ideas (for example transport solutions, working patterns, geopolitics, school and family life) which will give you wider perspectives. You will definitely grow in confidence for life, because you have taken the plunge to go and live with another family in a different country for over a week. This takes some bravery but brings huge rewards. You may now consider studying abroad without significant fees, in buoyant Berlin, warm-hearted Wien, mighty München or soulful St Gallen.
What I find the most rewarding and moving every year as the coordinator are the friendships that form and sometimes last for decades. Equally important are the doors that open to considering a different way of life, future travel, study or work on the continent. But for our students, the idea of a half day in school without uniform, time to hang out with and making new friends in a mixed school may be the most important experiences.
