Ein Jahr am Paulsen

Unsere Englisch Profilklasse reist in der 8. Klasse nach Upminster, einem Vorort von London, wo sie den Unterricht an unserer Partnerschule, der Hall Mead School, besuchen.

Hier der Bericht von 2025 :

Our Class Trip to England 2025

On the 26th of June 2025, our class went on a trip to England, where we stayed for 10 days in total.

Our journey began on a Thursday, when we all had to wake up early to meet at the airport, and everyone seemed too excited to feel tired. When we arrived in England, we went to explore the small suburb of Upminster and even got a first glimpse of the Hall Mead School, our partner school. Later on, we were picked up by our host families and had our first dinner there.

The next few days we travelled around London and did a lot of sightseeing and shopping as well. We even got to take a ride on the London Eye and climbed up the Tower Bridge.

Our class was divided into different groups and partnered up with some British students at the Hall Mead School the next week to introduce ourselves and to be shown around the school. We had to stay with them and attend their lessons. During that week, we had our first teatime together in a small café, where we ate lots of traditional snacks like scones and mini sandwiches. Our class even got to watch the musical “Clueless” on one of the afternoons, which was fun.

On our final day in England, we went on our last shopping tour before heading to the airport and flying back to Germany. There, our parents welcomed us with warm hugs, and we said goodbye to our friends and teachers.

Ayoung C. 

Ein Gastschüler aus London schildert seine Eindrücke am Paulsen-Gymnasium und vergleicht unsere Schule mit der Hall Mead School.

I am a pupil at Hall Mead School in England and I am the current year ten. For my work experience I have been working at Paulsen, completing various tasks, however I am also experiencing their day-to-day school life and comparing it to Hall Mead.

Firstly, the most striking feature of the Gymnasium (the school), is the garden: it is the biggest in Berlin, measuring six-thousand square metres. The garden is not only home to plants but animals too, such as, chickens, bees, mice, rabbits and fish. The school supplies the housing, food etc and the students give their time to care for the animals. I think this really gives the school its character, it allows students, who can´t keep pets at home, to keep them at the school. The reason why this is such a good idea is because it introduces the key life skill of responsibility. When the students leave Paulsen, they will face several responisibilities therefore, if they can take responsibility now it will benefit them in later life! Here, the school does not only educate the children academically but in significant life skills too. Hall Mead focusses less on these important life skills.

Secondly, in Hall Mead you do not attend classes with your form group and your classes are based on the subjects you have chosen. In Paulsen, most of your classes are spent in your form groups, which means you are with the same people almost throughout your school life. Sometimes this is viewed in a negative mannor because you are not socialising with a variety of people. (At lunch and break times there is no restriction of socialising with people from different forms). I believe that spending your school life with the same people, creates strong bonds between classes, this altogether means the learning atmosphere is much better because there is minimal tention betwen pupils. There is clear evidence of this from just looking around a class - everybody gets on with everybody! Overall, the pupils' academic success increases!

Finally, in Hall Mead you have set hours everyday and you have the same routine everyday but obviously different lessons. Paulsen students' routine is different: they have some long, some short days, finish and start at different times. Sometimes the school year/school life becomes very repetitive although, Paulsen´s use of different times differs their school life and it becomes less of a cycle. Paulsen students will get less bored because of difference, they will also enjoy and value their school life much more.

Overall, both Hall Mead and Paulson are very different schools, which use different teaching methods, however they both achieve high grades.

Todd Surridge, Hall Mead School 2017

Jedes Jahr fahren wir mit den Religions-Schüler*innen der 10.Klassen in die Hauptstadt des katholischen Glaubens. Auf den Spuren des Urchristentums bleiben wir eine Woche in Rom.

Die Wiege der Reformation will erforscht werden. Deswegen ist ein fester Bestandteil des Religionsunterrichts eine Reise in die Lutherstadt Wittenberg.

Alle Jahre wieder - geht es mit den Schüler*innen zur Buchmesse nach Leipzig. Morgens hin und abends zurück, ein erlebnisreicher Tag auf der Buchmesse.