Hameln Cultural Exchange

Sheldon School and the Schiller Gymnasium in Hameln (Schiller Grammar School) have been partner schools and have had mutual exchange visits for over 30 years, and this year 39 of our year 8 students took part in the German exchange.

After a midnight departure our journey took us through the Channel Tunnel, through France, Belgium and the Netherlands into Germany. We arrived late afternoon to glorious sunshine. After making our beds and eating our dinner we enjoyed the beautiful scenery on the banks of the Weser river and the students played football, volleyball, basketball and table tennis. And yes, we all appreciated our beds that night.

Saturday morning, after a lovely German breakfast, we headed on foot into the town centre of Hameln. We spent some time discovering the Old Town, listened to the bells on the old Town Hall and popped into the museum where we watched a mechanical play of the Pied Piper Story. Most of our students also re-discovered their "inner child" in the Playmobil exhibition of the museum. We enjoyed our packed lunches in the sunshine on the Old Market Square whilst watching the "Glockenspiel" outside the Town Hall.

In the afternoon the coach drove us to Bodenwerder, where the Sommer-Rodelbahn (Summer toboggan ride) waited for us. Definitely a highlight of the trip! Who needs brakes when they just slow you down?

Then back to the youth hostel for dinner and more games and our talent show. Many memorable performances (high pitched screeching, martial arts, diabolo artistry, dancing, football keepy-uppy, Russian style dancing and dad jokes). 

Many also practised their German whilst chatting to a German handball team who also stayed at the hostel.

Sunday we drove to Movie Park Germany in Bottrop, where we spent the day having fun on rides. Most of us also caught up on a bit of sleep on the coach.

Monday morning we had to get up early to sort our rooms out ready for our evening departure and an 8 o'clock start at the partner school. We met our partners, went on a tour of the school and then joined our partners for a couple of lessons. We then all went into town to spend more time getting to know the town and our partners...and to do some shopping...and some more shopping. The souvenir shops must have had empty shelves by the end of the afternoon!

Last supper at the youth hostel before heading back to the Schiller Gymnasium for our farewell party. Our hosts provided us with an amazing buffet, the German students and their parents had really gone all out! We really appreciated being made to feel so welcome at our partner school and hope to be able to return the favour when they visit us in September.

After we said our good-byes we left Hameln at 9pm to head back to Chippenham, only a bit delayed by road works and traffic jams on the motorway. Now we just need to catch up on some sleep.

A huge thank you to our drivers from Coachstyle (Andy and Tony), Mrs Shapcott and all the languages teachers for organising this amazing trip, Mrs Masters for leading the trip, Mr Curtis-Nye, Mrs Wilson-Morris, Mrs Badley and Mrs Williams for giving up their time to make the trip possible as well as the UK German Connection for financially supporting the trip.

The students were an absolute credit to the school and their families and a pleasure to spend 5 amazing days with.