From 30th September to 7th October 2009 a group of students from Otto-Pankok-Schule in Mülheim an der Ruhr, accompanied by their teachers Erich Bittmann and Helena Ciborovius, stayed in Darlington.
The stay, which was again supported and funded by Mülheim town authorities, Foerderverein Staedtepartnerschaften and Leonhard-Stinnes-Stiftung, was the 18th meeting of Otto-Pankok students and students from Darlington schools.
The Otto-Pankok-Schule students visited their Darlington partner schools Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College and Hurworth School where they worked on different projects with their British partners.
At QE the projects were supported by Bianca Buhl who works for UK-German Connection in London. Everything had again been carefully prepared and organized by QE Head of German Penny Porter, who also helped to establish new contacts to Hummersknott School, where the Otto-Pankok students, welcomed by Head of Modern Foreign Languages Melanie Vallet, spent another day.
During the visit to Hurworth School, where the Mülheim group was met by Headteacher Dean Judson and Ann Kennedy, German and British pupils spent lessons together. Unfortunately Hurworth Head of German Lisa Armes, who had organized visits of Otto-Pankok-Schule groups in the previous years, could not meet the Mülheim students this year due to an illness.
The visit to Darlington was rounded off by a reception by The Mayor of Darlington, Jim Ruck, and by visits to the University College in Durham, to York, Newcastle, and Roman Piercebridge. The Otto-Pankok students particularly enjoyed the guided tour of Darlington Civic Theatre. On the last evening of their stay in Darlington the Otto-Pankok group met D&DTTA Chair and Councillor Tom Nutt during a farewell dinner at Chinese restaurant Soho in Northgate.
Back in Mülheim we can say that we all enjoyed the visit to Darlington very much and will definitely come back next year.
Erich Bittmann - School exchange project manager at Otto-Pankok-Schule in Mülheim an der Ruhr