Ambassadors Projects 2019
In November, our 2018-19 cohort of Cultural Exchange Ambassadors all met for the first time at the introductory seminar in London.
They were given the opportunity to find out more about their new roles as Ambassadors, discuss potential themes, as well as "project speed-date" with one another and develop their project plans together in pairs / groups.
They've all had fantastic starts to their projects, and are collectively working with around 550 young people across the UK and Germany! We'll be posting regular updates here throughout the year about the progress of their bilateral projects.
Environmental exchange: how different are our communitites?
Partnership: MLA Ambassador Clara and ELA Ambassador Rhys
Schools: Medina College, Isle of Wight and Albert Einstein Gymnasium, Frankenthal
Pupils involved: 22 pupils
Clara and Rhys decided to focus their Ambassador project on the environment & global issues.
To start their project off, both classes sent Christmas boxes to the other school, filled with things to introduce their towns and schools, as well as some Christmas treats! Clara's class made a detailed map of the Isle of Wight, and prepared an introduction to their school and the UK education system. They sent both of these, along with Dairy Milk and biscuits in their box to Frankenthal. Rhys' school prepared homemade Gingerbread and Christmas cookies and sent these, along with a map and a booklet introducing their town, examples of traditional Christmas songs and personalised postcards, to the Isle of Wight school.
In the next few months, Rhys' school will turn their focus to the environmental topics of waste and transport, whereas Clara's school will focus on water and the ocean. Clara's class will have a session on analysing the cleanliness of different types of water and will have a visit from an expert on cleaning up the ocean. At Rhys' school, the pupils will be doing a clean up of their campus, to see what sort of rubbish they find.
Both schools and pupils have such different ideas of the environment, based on where they're from, so there will be lots of interesting comparisons to be made...
A fairy tale & folklore audio exchange
Partnership: MLA Ambassadors Florian & Maria and ELA Ambassadors Tom & Jennifer
Schools: Thomas Lord Audley School, Cotham School, Oberschule Salzbergen, Kurt-Schumacher-Schule
Pupils involved: 80 pupils
Tom, Jennifer, Maria & Florian have chosen to base their project on the theme of identity, and will explore both German and British identity with their four schools. They plan to use fairy tales and folk legends to explore and compare their own and the other culture's identity. This will be done through recording and exchanging audio files of the pupils reading their favourite fairy tales & legends.
So far, each pair of Ambassadors has started off their project by sending Christmas parcels and introductory letters to the school in the other country, so that they get to know each other and get excited about the next stage of the project.
Exchanging cultures: family, traditions, school & charity
Partnership: MLA Ambassador Jennifer and ELA Ambassador Ellie
Schools: Dr Challoner`s High School and Gymnasium Odenthal
Pupils involved: 64
Ellie and Jennifer decided to focus their project on identity and integration. With their two classes, they will discuss and exchange on four different areas: Welcome & introduction, Family & Traditions, School Life, finishing with a Charity Project.
So far the Ambassadors have sent a Welcome Box from each school, including pen pal letters from each pupil and cultural treats. Next up, the classes will consider their family tree, and any special traditions they have which might differ from the other country.
Thanks to all of our Cultural Exchange Ambassadors for getting their projects off to such a fantastic start! We're really looking forward to hearing more detailed project updates from our other Ambassadors, and seeing how all of their projects develop!