School Exchange Dorsten – Ballyclare

There has been contact between Dorsten and Ballyclare since the 1950s. A town twinning with Newtownabbey grew out of this in 1988 and with it the school exchange of Ballyclare High School with Gymnasium Petrinum.

Gymnsaium Petrinum has about 1300 pupils on the roll who are taught by about 90 teachers. The school is surrounded by the River Lippe and the canal and is situated close to the town. Since 1999 the school had been under the headship of Mr W. Gorniak.

We are enjoying our second trip to Northern Ireland very much, since we weren’t expecting such good weather and the scenery has made a wonderful impression on us all over again. Our host families have been as friendly as ever to us and we’ve felt very at home. They’ve enabled us to learn, quite apart from school, what is typical of Ireland. Of course, we’ve been able to improve our English, as we’d hoped and formed some new friendships. Naturally we hope to keep up close contact with our hosts, even after the exchange. For all future participants of the Ballyclare-Dorsten exchange, we would wish them a similar experience of all that Northern Ireland has to offer; eg the Giant’s Causeway.