Englisch

My term in Downside Abbey School

Hello my name is Isabella Zick and for this term, I decided to visit a Benedictine school in the south of the UK: Downside Abbey School.
Even if this school is Benedictine as ours in Admont, there couldn't be more differences. Firstly, Downside is a boarding school, meaning that you stay here the whole term except one week of holidays called half term. There are different houses the pupils stay in and this house really becomes a second family.
The other differences concern everyday school life and the presence of the abbey. Different to the five days of school we have in Admont, also Saturday is a school day here. School starts at 8:40 in the morning and ends at 5 p.m. The monks in Downside don't teach but they walk through the school, talk at the assemblies in the houses and hold, of course, the mass we have every Sunday.

Back to my impressions when I first came here:

When Tom, the driver of my guardian, and I first entered the campus of Downside I was surprised by how big and busy everything was. People walking around with huge suitcases, chattering with others, busy teachers welcoming the new students. But even if the first day was so stressful, I felt really welcomed. A prefect showed me the house, my room and then I met the other girls of my form. I'm in 5th form (like 6. Klasse in Admont) and our squad of girls living in Isabella house is a real mixture of nationalities! Hong Kong, Portugal, Italy, Germany and UK - we are like the United Nations! (Yes, that's what we've heard several times).
These girls and of course the other students of 5th form were so friendly and welcoming that I quickly made friends.

But of course, we have to learn as well and the first days of school were an interesting experience. Lots of rules, strict teachers but I still enjoyed it! The subjects themselves aren't that different and as I'm one year older than most students of 5th form, I didn’t have any difficulties with the topics.

I feel like I've been here for more than just a few weeks, because the school here is like a rush. Just a few hours of free time, you never get bored.
I'm looking forward to the next months in Downside and I really hope that I enjoy this time as I did the first weeks!

Video clip of our last language trip to Ireland

In the course of the English lesson the students of the former 5B were asked to make a video about their language trip to Ireland. Have a look at the following video about our stunning time we had in Dublin!

Book Project 3AB

After finishing this year’s school book the students of 3AB read „Hoot“ by Carl Hiassen. They all really enjoyed the story. In order to sum it up, they then designed a portfolio including character profiles, sociograms and plot diagrams. Here are some examples of these amazing works:

English Spelling Bee Competition

Today the first “Spelling Bee Competition” took place in our school! Three volunteers of each first class participated and challenged each other. The students were asked the words in German first, then had to translate them into English and finally spell them correctly.

Congratulations to Jaromir Blutaumüller, who ranked first, followed by Florentin Schamberger and Lorena Pichler.

Your teachers are so proud of your great spelling abilities! :-)

Teenager’s feelings by Jakob Urban (5A)

Many children are happy with their lives, because they’re not confronted with this cold world. They don’t know what life is like.

They are happy because they have never been hurt by other people before.

Human beings are like instruments. Every instrument has strings and every pain cuts one string. And, even if there are people who can mend these strings, we will never be the same. Every string represents a part of you. Every cut string brings you down. And if the last string snaps, it’s the end.

So many people say, I will be there for you forever, and then they leave you. This is always a lie. Every story has an ending. This is exactly what mankind is like: people hurt each other and they don’t think about the consequences of their actions. And, often people promise things to you, but they are not able to keep the promises and they leave you.

I’m sure, everyone knows this feeling. How it feels like to be alone. You go through your storms of life and you don’t know how long this storm’s going to be…

It’s really difficult to trust people in today’s world. Everyone says: “You can trust me! I won’t tell this secret to anyone.” And on the next day, it feels like everyone knows it. Such experiences hurt and cut strings off.

But I’m not here to tell you, that this is the end. There is always hope. The sun comes out again after every dark night. I’m here to tell you, that everything happens for a reason. Everything has a reason, even if you don’t understand it at first. Separations are part of our lives.

There are things in our lives, that we can’t change. But we can decide how to deal with our problems. We only have this one life. We won’t get a second chance. So, we have to be patient and learn how to come along with other human beings and learn how to treat each other.

I’m here to tell you that you should never give up. I know that life isn’t always easy but it’s important that you have faith. It’s so important to believe in yourself. It’s so hard to be strong, when people don’t believe in you and constantly tell you that you’re not good enough.

But it’s not true, you’re good enough!

It’s a lie that you’re not worth anything!

YOU are awesome just the way you are!

You are perfect with all your mistakes!

You are unique!

There is no one like you!

You only exist once and you are awesome just the way you are!

Believe in your dreams and never give up!

It doesn’t matter what happened in your past!

It doesn’t matter how often you fall down!

You just have to get back up!

You can’t change your past but

you have to accept it and change your future!

You can be, whoever you want to be!

Accept yourself and love yourself!

Don’t care what other people say, it’s your life and you only live once!

Follow your heart, accept yourself just the way you are. With all your great talents and also with your mistakes and the other people will accept you!

Just believe in yourself and stay strong!

You are awesome just the way you are!!

The ideal room

Learning by cooking

After a tiring and successful school year, the students of the 2nd and 7th form enjoyed their English cooking lesson. After they have been given their tasty “fluffy pancakes” recipe, each step and unknown vocabulary words were explained by their teacher. Then the students had the opportunity to show their cooking skills. The pancakes tasted wonderful and the students obviously enjoyed their ‘special’ English lesson!

First steps with the past simple

After introducing the topic of the past simple to the class, the students of the first form were asked to complete the sheet. some were very brave and even wrote sentences, others only stuck to pictures. aren’t the pictures gorgeous?

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