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• Awards Evening 2010
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Trip to Germany and Poland

Paston students experience history at first hand

On the 10th February 50 AS and A-level students from Paston College students embarked on trip to Germany and Poland, providing them with the opportunity to relate personally and at first hand to the ideas and events covered in their study of history and sociology. 
 
The students visited Berlin, Germany's glistening "new" capital and gained an authentic taste of 'old Europe' in the Polish city of Krakow, one of Europe's best preserved medieval cities. The trip organizer, history teacher James Linnell has a history of organizing popular study trips for Paston students. In the past three years he has taken parties to Central Europe, Russia and China. 
 
"I have always believed that students learn more when they interact at first hand with the ideas and issues they are studying".  
 
This is no surprise in the case of Berlin, which has been at the fulcrum of change over the last three centuries and a breeding ground of ideas and artistic expression. For over a century it has either mirrored or determined events in the rest of the world, epitomising change, diversity and exuberance. To walk the streets of Berlin confronts you with a mind-numbing set of stimuli and one that can be powerfully contrasted with that of the older Europe displayed in Krakow.  
 
In Berlin students visited sites such as the Reichstag (German parliament), the Olympic Stadium and the Brandenburg Gate. They also undertook specialist visits to the Berlin Museum of Cinema, with film and media teachers Tom Westwood and Matt Stainthorp, and the DDR Museum, with sociology teachers Joan Cherry and Helen McGuinness, to see what life was like in the socialist society of East Germany. .  
 
In Poland the party visited Auschwitz - the emotional site of the former "death camp". This probably left the most lasting impression on the students.

James Linnell said that he felt "it was important for young people to be challenged by such horrifying events in our past. I hope that this visit will act as a warning against the dangers of xenophobia and racism, which unfortunately are still present in our society today". 
 
It is the young people themselves who best sum up their experience of the trip  
 
"the trip was incredibly worthwhile, giving me the chance to see the sights that have marked world history such as the Berlin Wall. I thoroughly enjoyed discovering two different countries in such great company." A2 history student Kirsty Barrett, 18, from Calthorpe . 
 
"a life-changing experience which I will never forget. It has given me a greater understanding of the history and moved me and many other students on the trip. It also gave us a chance to meet new people who we were then able to share the experience with and as a group, we shared a lot of laughs as well - a brilliant trip." AS history student Emma Webster,17, from Aylsham.