The aim of their project was to encourage younger students in their respective schools to engage with their foreign language studies in English and German. Using a variety of media, Lena and Josie paired pupils from each country up to exchange letters and ideas about a variety of themes, from interests and hobbies to citizenship.

A Christmas parcel exchange was a good way to get pupils on board and the exchange of Steckbriefe and ‘All About Me’ letters shortly followed. Once pupils were familiar with each other, they started to work on the creation of tourist brochures about their cities to send to their partners and introduce their homes. This was followed by a video exchange all about their schools and the project ended with a second parcel exchange with the theme ‘Things I would miss from Germany/the UK’. Pupils’ confidence in speaking and writing in the target language has now improved and the Ambassadors hope that their pupils will continue to keep in touch now that such a strong link has been established between them.

After a starter activity of writing Christmas and New Year cards to one another, Rut and Amy’s project allowed pupils to learn about different legendary tales from Scotland and Germany. Pupils researched legends from their own country and then translated their chosen legend in to the target language with the help of Rut and Amy. Storyboards for the various legends were made in the target language with lots of captions and images. Pupils then recorded their translated legends on mobile phones and sent these recordings to the other school, along with photographs of their posters, translated texts and drawings.

Listening to the recordings was really fun for the pupils and afterwards, they answered quiz questions about the legends provided by their partners in the other country. The pupils then started writing their own stories in the target language, establishing characters and locations though the use of a game. Pupils learned a lot about the other country and even learned new things about their own country through participating. A successful storytelling afternoon was organised for around 80 pupils in years 5, 6 and 8 at the school in Germany which allowed for more pupils to be part of the project.

At the end of the project, Rut and Amy will bind the translated legends and individual stories from both schools together into a booklet for the participating pupils and schools to keep as a lasting memory of this creative project.

Through the establishment of a lunch club and video exchange project, Isabell and Rebecca gave their pupils an insight in to the respective school and school system of their partners. Pupils were introduced to each other by exchanging a film about their school. This film was shot entirely by the pupils and they enjoyed editing it themselves and taking real ownership of their project. The videos produced for the project can be viewed by other pupils at the schools and used as authentic teaching material in future classes and years to come. Once the pupils at each school had viewed the film, they wrote letters to introduce themselves to one another ‘off-screen’.

Exchanging letters was a good way to facilitate authentic contact between the two groups of young people, whilst ensuring the target language was being used. Pupils also exchanged parcels which contained typical items used during the school day which helped them to envisage everyday life at school in the other country. This project helped pupils to become responsible citizens who have a growing awareness of life in another society and of the issues facing citizens in the countries where their new language is spoken.