The partnership of these two schools started in 2009, when the principal of Kreisgymnasium Heinsberg, a high school in the most western part of Germany some 40 kilometres away from Aachen, visited Phoenix High in Manenberg to support the project colOURful busSHELTERs, which just took place at Phoenix at that time.
Out of this first encounter a stable school partnership emerged and nine vice-versa exchanges took place! Five groups of learners from Heinsberg visited Cape Town and the school in Manenberg to work together with the South African learners in the following joint projects:
- Fight against the Waterhyacinth (2009)
- Garden of the Phoenix (2010)
- Colourful Container (2012)
- Benches and Tables (2014)
- Design of the canteen (2022)
In June 2011 the first visit of seven learners and two teachers from Manenberg to Germany took place. The learners created a mural at Kreisgymnasium Heinsberg together with their German partners which shows the connectivity between the two schools. During the second visit of four learners and a teacher in 2013 the exchange students planted a huge flower bed on the central schoolyard of Kreisgymnasium Heinsberg. During the third exchange from Manenberg to Heinsberg in 2015 the learners created a huge poster about all the projects that had taken place already on both sides of the globe.
The exchange was discontinued for several years due to the Heinsberg parents’ fear of the violence flaring up on the streets of Manenberg and new visa regulations for young South Africans under the age of 18. In 2019, Heinsberg teacher Caroline Wolff visited Phoenix again and it was agreed that the exchange should be continued. However, due to the Covid19 pandemic, the visit planned for 2020 could not take place. However, it was only postponed and continued in October 2022 with a visit to Manenberg by the largest student-teacher group to date. The return visit from Manenberg took place in June 2023. The murals from the Phoenix canteen from the previous year were “copied” onto the pillars around the Heinsberg schoolyard.
