Bristol Hannover Council

** Former Chair Ann Kennard was again invited to the annual Sommerfest der deutschen Sprache, a celebration by the German Embassy of the achievements of certain individuals who have made a special effort to widen interest in the German language.

Apart from celebrating the teaching and learning of German in the UK, there was also a new German-British Friendship Award: Network Champion for German as part of the Ambassador’s Making the Case for German initiative.

Ambassador Berger demonstrating the great variety covered by the Newcastle German language festival

This was to widen the remit from the previous German Teacher Award, and was bestowed on six worthy recipients from organisations around the country, both educational and more general friendship groups, which had been particularly active in promoting the German language.

One Festival of Language was held in Newcastle between January and March 2025, involving 9,300 children at 426 schools (see below). Well-known academic Katrin Kohl presented the Oxford German Olympiad (ditto).

The Oxford German Olympiad, running since 2013, giving much opportunity for creativity at all levels of education

As a colourful extra, Axel Scheffler’s book for primary school German learners, Wuschel auf der Erde, has now been published by the Goethe Institute, and is available for use by young German enthusiasts.

ANN KENNARD

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