_{2018 marks the 50}^th _{anniversary of Chipping Norton School’s German Exchange with the Theodor-Heuss-Gymnasium in Nördlingen. The exchange started after a regional partnership between Oxfordshire and the Bavarian region of Schwaben led to the meeting of the then head of CNS, Arthur Nockles, and Dr Alexander Kessler. Initially visiting each other in alternate years, the exchange now takes place on a yearly basis and over the years has enabled hundreds of students to experience family and school life in a different country and form many long lasting friendships. In the run up to the celebrations, there have been lots of stories of great experiences and of families who are still great friends over 30 years after doing the exchange. We now find that students taking part sometimes had parents or other family members who also took part in the exchange. In fact the grandfather of one of the German students who was visiting us this year took part in the very first visit to Chipping Norton back in 1968! The German teachers have been over many times and their bus driver, Peter Rapp, has just completed his 22}^nd _{visit to our school.} 

_{To celebrate this remarkable achievement we held an event on Wednesday night for our German guests and their host families. It was a fantastic atmosphere of friendship and celebration, with everyone tucking in to scones and cake. We were treated to some great music by the school concert band, speeches by Mrs Thomas, Mr Doherty, Herr Aunkofer and Chipping Norton’s mayor, Councillor Don Davidson, who also presented the German teachers with a glass engraved with the coat of arms of Chipping Norton. But undoubtedly the highlight of the evening was a shadow puppet play performed in German by some of our students telling the story of the saving of Nördlingen in 1440 by a pig. Graf Hans von Oettingen had bribed a gate guard to leave Löpsinger Tor unlocked so that he and his men could sneak in during the night and capture the town. But a woman passing the gate while fetching beer for her husband came across the pig scratching itself on the gate and so was alerted to the fact that the gate was open. She raised the alarm and Hans von Oettingen was not able to conquer the town.}

 _{We are incredibly proud that our school has maintained such strong links with our German partner school for such a long time. In a time when many schools no longer offer the exchange experience to students, we are looking forward to keeping this friendship going for many more years to come.}