2017 has been a really busy and exciting year here in the German department. So much went on, and so many students achieved a lot throughout the year.

The year was started off with two Burnside students, Tod Cvetanov and Chenielle Clark, going on the NZ-Germany Exchange Programme, accompanied by one of our German teachers Frau Currie during December and January. They went to Bavaria, where they went to school, and on many trips with their host families, whom they lived with for the time. They said that not only did they have a great time learning about the culture, but they also improved their own German.

Two Year 11 German students will also be going on an exchange at the end of this year. Tara Borrmeister will be heading off to Bavaria and Lisa Christie will be going to Baden-Württemberg. Best of luck!

Also early in the year, Alex King and May Nittaywan, who had won a PASCH German Scholarship in 2016, spent 3 weeks in January taking the Goethe language and cultural course, in Frankfurt. This year’s winners are Tod Cvetanov and Harry Burt, who will be going to Frankfurt in January 2019.

Moving on to March, there were 2 special events that occured this year. The German department took part in Mardis Gras, a festival where all the languages can come together and share their own traditional food with one another. It is held annually, and the German department this year not only shared food and drinks such as Lebkuchen and Spezi, but also added a little bit of extra spice, with German flags, music and even facepaint.

We also had workshops in March, with the Yo-Yo Meister along with Heike Pappenthin, coming down to Christchurch to teach German classes a few different yo-yo tricks.

There have also been some other successes, coming from within the German department this year. First was the OSKAR Quiz, which is a quiz for Year 10 German students, about everything German. There were practical challenges along with the standard questions and plenty of German music. Two of our own teams did very well, winning first and third place. Congratulations to Kieran King, Lewis Grey, Jeriel Tee and Sungmin Oh who won first place, and to Jodi Choi, Maya Halford, Lucy Wills and Nané du Preez who won third place.

We also had Year 10 and 11 students who participated in the European Framework benchmark Goethe exams at levels A1 and A2, with all doing very well.

Congratulations to all German students this year. You have all achieved a lot and should be very proud of yourselves. Continue to try hard and keep on achieving, even if it may no longer be with the German department.

Nané du Preez