An insight into UK schools from German students...

My school in the UK is a great school, especially because it’s well organised and modern in comparison to many German schools. It provides way more subjects, including unusual ones like photography or construction which are nice to have as an opportunity.

Everyone is welcoming and ready to help if there are any questions, and although our teachers are very professional, you can have a great relationship with each one of them.

The whole equipment including computers, chairs, desks, and the whole classrooms in general are great so you can work in a good environment.

The teachers use online platforms like Google Classroom and Gmail in order to exchange information about homework, and online-schooling procedures with the students. This was important for me as an exchange student because, especially in the beginning, I sometimes misheard or simply just didn’t understand something. Having all this information online just made organising yourself way easier.

The head of the school, Mr. Williamson, does a great job with organising and leading the school and at the same time, training the college football team with dedication and a good relationship to the players, including myself!

There are the sports academies which are offered after school too. The main ones are cricket and football but also others like table tennis and multisport.

In comparison to my German school, my UK school is a whole new and better experience. The subjects, equipment, and sports academies are better than the German schools I’ve been at. It is just way more modern and further developed which provides a nice environment to do sports, learn or just hang around with your friends during the breaks.

My college is the UK is a lovely college to study in as a German international student. The large campus is probably my favourite part because it has a huge grassland to sit down for lunch, especially now it is getting warmer.

The college is huge in comparison to my school in Germany, there are five main blocks, where different kinds of subjects are being taught. I spend nearly my whole week in E-block, which is the social studies and language block since my AS-Level subjects are Psychology, French and Criminology.

I enjoy French the most, but Psychology and Criminology are also awesome subjects to take, I really recommend them to everyone because it’s something completely different than my “normal” subjects in Germany.

In my free periods I am either spending time, playing games, or just chatting with my friends or going to my enrichments, which my college offers.

They have a wide range of enrichments you can take part in the time you don’t have class. I decided to go for Yoga, and I like doing my yoga class a lot. At first, it was just me and my Czech host sister who went there but from time to time I asked more of my friends and they were happy to join.

Studying abroad is a great opportunity and no worries are needed at all because everyone is very friendly and welcome you with opened arms.

My school/college in England, is very different to my school in Germany.

My school in Germany is smaller with old building and students are between 11 and 18 years old. Here in England students go to college for their last two school years and in my college, there are approximately 1500 students. It is a very modern building with a lot of windows and nicely furnished classrooms.

The college offers a wide range of subjects. Apart from normal subjects like Maths, English and History, students can also take Acting, Art & Design, Criminology, Journalism, Photography, Travel & Tourism and many more. I think it’s really cool that they offer so many different subjects because in Germany I have to do 11 subjects that are all pretty boring. Here I could choose three subjects plus Maths and English that I had to take. I chose History, Geography and Film Studies.

While I have History and Geography in Germany, Film Studies is something completely new to me. We talk about one film for a few weeks, analyse it and its context and in the end, watch it. Something I find really cool is that my geography class normally does trips, for example to London but also to different countries like Costa Rica, Iceland and China.

I noticed that the teachers here are so nice and personal, they like to chat and if I struggle with something, they help me immediately. During lockdown in January and February I had online lessons. The college organised this very well in my opinion.

The teachers adapted their lesson and often finished the lesson a little bit earlier so we wouldn’t spend too much time in front of a screen. All in all, I have to say that I really enjoy going to college here and it is very interesting to see and experience two completely different education systems.

I go to school in the UK and right now I am in Year 12 or 6th form, they call that College here in England. I study three A Levels and English GCSE (because all international students must take that). My favorite part of school is that I can see my friends and that I can improve my English this way.

A difference between Germany and England schools is that you have two or three teachers for the same subject and they all teach different topics. The school offers much more subjects than my school in Germany, for example Photography, Psychology or Media.

I have chosen Photography as one of my subjects, my others are History and Maths and of course English. In photography we choose a topic at the beginning, I chose stories, and then we must take the photos with different settings based on our theme. After we take these photographs, we edit them in photoshop and use different tools to make them black & white or brighter or darker. In History I am learning about Russia and China communism. It is very interesting but also a bit hard because everything is in English.

My school offers many computers which you can just go to and work on, a little cafe where you can buy sandwiches, coffee, tea, and other little snacks. We have a little room for 6th Form where we can go to and just chill.

All in all, the school is very nice and modern but also a bit different to my school in Germany, but this does not mean it is bad. It is a great experience for me to have a look into other schools and see what they have to offer