Dauntsey's School now has an active exchange program with schools in France and Germany
France
Collège la Croix St Marceau, Orléans
Dauntsey's is now into its second year of an exchange with a school in Orléans, Collège la Croix, St Marceau. The exchange at the moment involves just the second form, although plans are afoot to develop the exchange for those third formers who wish to return to see their new friends. This year, half of our 2nd form pupils are going to spend a week in Orléans enjoying French family life and will also experience the Joan of Arc celebrations which take place in May. The French children will come to Dauntsey's in March and will enjoy everyday life here - some of them even staying at the Manor for the week. It is set to be a very exciting time for all those involved.
As well as this exchange, other year groups also enjoy contact with the school. Pupils are introduced to the exchange very early on. Our first form write letters to pupils of their age in Orléans at the end of their first term here.
They also have a web site: www.Saintmarceau.fr.st
Germany
Our partner school in Germany is the Suitbertus-Gymnasium in Kaiserswerth, just to the north of Düsseldorf. Kaiserswerth is a charming and ancient little town (reputedly founded by St. Swidbert of Nottingham during the Dark Ages – possibly the first German-English exchange in history!), and the Suitbertus-Gymnasium is an 11-18 grammar school with about 1200 pupils with such a good reputation locally that students are prepared to commute fairly long distances, from Duisburg to the north and Düsseldorf to the south.
The exchange has just completed its fourth very successful year. Contacts are first made at the beginning of the fourth year, with letters being exchanged, and the German children come to Dauntsey’s during the second half of the following summer term. Our own pupils go out on the return leg, lasting six days, at the start of the Autumn half term in the fifth form, during which time they gather materials for the coursework element of the GCSE examination. Apart from attending a couple of lessons each day and getting an insight into German schools, a very full programme of excursions and activities is arranged for us, including meals out, cycle rides along the Rhine, trips to Düsseldorf with its shops and TV tower, the Neandertal museum, Bonn, and the Drachenfels overlooking the Rhine at Königswinter. For the past three years, all students in the fifth form have participated, such is its popularity and success.
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Contacts with the Suitbertus-Gymnasium do not stop there, as a number of pupils remain in contact and visit each other on a private basis in the sixth form. Also each year two or three sixth-formers from Suitbertus come to spend a year in the Lower Sixth.