Student Exchanges
 Student and School Exchange visits - Redcar & Cleveland Twinning Association has developed considerable expertise in planning school exchange visits. In the last decade, more than 1500 young people have participated in the visits.
At the simplest level, the Twinning Association will identify and introduce prospective school or group partners and leave them to make all their own arrangements. At the highest level of support, the Twinning Association will make the initial introductions, work with the partners to plan the visit and provide an escort with all the necessary local knowledge and connections to ensure the visit is a success.
Most often, the Twinning Association makes the introductions, assists with planning the visit and then stands aside to let the group leaders take responsibility for making the visit.
The Exchange principle - Visits are usually organised on an exchange basis. That implies that a group that accepts hospitality, when visiting its partner, is expected to offer the equivalent hospitality on the return visit.
What about the language? - If the purpose of the visit is to practise the language or to participate in a work-experience programme, then a reasonable knowledge of German makes the visit more enjoyable. German to a GCSE level or sufficient to survive a trip on local transport of shopping is usually a reasonable basic level.
If the visit is not language based, then knowledge of German is not a requirement. All German students learn English as a compulsory second language; most are quite keen to seize the opportunity to practice on English visitors.
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