Visiting the United Nations in Germany

From Monday 7 through to Thursday 10 October, we travelled to Germany as part of our A Level German studies.

We were invited to visit the UN in Bonn thanks to the generous efforts of Hanna Hoffmann, who leads the Framework Constitution on Climate Change.

Once we handed in our passports Hanna gave us a personal tour of the UN buildings, and also gave an interesting presentation on the climate crisis which we are facing today.

More importantly we also discussed the ways in which we could make our own school more environmentally friendly. She passionately encouraged personal initiatives to reduce carbon emissions as every small effort helps.

We thought that our digital school is doing well with paper reduction but we could be much more vigilant about switching off lights and electronic equipment.

We each stayed with a German family which gave us the opportunity to experience German culture and food and most importantly, hear the language outside the classroom.

It was also a great experience to go to a German school and get an idea of how their lessons are structured. The culture of the school is strikingly different to ours with no uniform, co-ed and short days all to recommend it!

It was particularly interesting to talk about how the school rules have been influenced by the history of Germany so that the way decisions are made is through the school council with a strong student voice.

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