On Friday 12 October, 19 Blackheath High School Students from year groups 9-12 set off for Germany on the second leg of our exchange with the Angela Merici grammar school in Trier.

We at Blackheath High Senior School have had several successful exchanges over the years with the school which - very unusually for Germany – is all-girls. Trier is the oldest town in Germany and was the northern capital of the Roman Empire. Our itinerary included visits to the town’s well-known historic sights -  the Porta Nigra and the Roman baths.

Blackheath High School students were first put in touch with their exchange partners in June and had been writing to them over the summer until the German students came over to London in September. Friendships were well and truly forged then, so on the journey over to Germany, Blackheath High School students seemed excited at the prospect of seeing their exchange partners again, this time in their home environment.

On arrival in Trier, the students were met by their partners and their parents and were given a reception at the school as the girls reacquainted themselves. We were surprised by the warm weather – 26 degrees and not a cloud in the sky and so it remained for the rest of our stay.

The first two days of the exchange were spent with the host families. On the third, our students experienced a day in school with their partner. As many of the families live quite a distance from Trier and school starts at 8 o’clock, this meant an extremely early start for many Blackheath High School students. The upside of the early start was the 1pm finish, after which we went on a walking tour of the town taking in the famous sights and then on to the pretty town of Saarburg nearby. During the coach journey, students were able to swap stories about their weekend activities. We heard about day trips to Luxembourg for shopping (Trier is very close to the border), summer tobogganing and even sailing. All the girls were made to feel welcome and seemed very happy with their families. A day trip to Cochem followed the next day and all too soon after that, we were on our way home to London.

Taking part in an exchange can seem quite daunting, but all of our students came back with smiles on their faces and glad that they had participated. They now have first-hand knowledge of German culture and, most importantly, they spoke lots of German. I am sure the 2018 German exchange to Trier will be an experience Blackheath High School students will never forget – for all the right reasons.