Visit to Peebles - May 2004

Visit to Peebles - May 2004
Finnish and German visitors with Mr Brett in the Board Room of Robert Noble's

Seven German students, 3 German teachers, 5 Finnish students and 2 Finnish teachers visited Peebles High School from 5-9 May. Both teachers and students were hosted by families .

After settling in with their host families on the first night, both students and teachers spent some time attending classes in school on Thursday morning. The group then visited Edinburgh where they had a tour of the Edinburgh Castle and spent the rest of the time exploring the Royal Mile.

On Friday, most students spent time with their hosts in classes whilst some had lessons in Scottish Country Dancing in preparation for the Ceilidh which was to follow on Friday evening.

The remainder of Friday saw the group visiting March Street Mill where they were given a tour of Robert Noble's by the company's Managing Director, Mr Rowland Brett. The visitors showed a keen interest in the high quality and specialised products.

Friday afternoon was spent at the Peebles Hotel Hydro where the German group introduced the audience to a multi-media presentation showing businesses in Scotland, Finland, Germany and Minorca. This presentation will be entered into a multi media competition for schools in Germany. Several representatives from the school's newly formed "Business Partnership" attended this performance and were impressed by both the high technical aspects of the presentation and by the excellent standard of English demonstrated by the German students.

The German presentation was followed by 2 workshops led by Mrs Suzanne Dyer of the School Board and by Mr Kenneth Fisher from Scottish Enterprise. The students were put into teams mixing Finnish, German and Scottish students. The first workshop was to encourage "creative thinking" by the students who had to speak for one minute on alternative uses for everyday household items. Considering that the visiting students were working in a second language, the creativity of ideas shown was exceptional.

The second workshop had the students marketing jeans to the "Over 50s" which resulted in some interesting and amusing suggestions. The visiting teachers also joined in but were outperformed by the students in both workshops! Our thanks are due to Mrs Dyer and Mr Fisher for leading the 2 workshops in an interesting and stimulating way.

The visitors were given an insight into Scottish culture when they attended a Ceilidh in the town's Burgh Hall. This was attended by the host families, members of the School Board and senior students from the school. Our thanks are due to the marvellous Ceilidh Band of the Coe Family, the soloist performers (fiddle, clarsach and bagpipes) and especailly to the ladies of the Parents' Association who set up the hall and served the food and drinks.

The school's Rector, Mr John Brown thanked all those who had helped towards a very successful evening. The Ceilidh was rounded off in the traditional way with a lively "Auld Lang Syne".

Saturday was spent with the host families and most students headed back to Edinburgh to shop for gifts to take home to Germany and Finland.

Both visiting groups departed on Sunday morning with many strong friendships formed and presents exchanged.