If you'd told me they were handing out 100 € notes to the first pupils through the front doors, I'd have believed you.

But no, they were simply making a beeline for the canteen, lured no doubt by the smell of fresh-baked pizza.

There's a lot of things I like about this school though. It's so much better organised than anywhere I've taught in England.

There the first part of each lesson invariably involved coercing pupils into not climbing out of the windows, clearing up their crisp bags from the floor and rubbing obscenities off the blackboard.

Here in Germany pupils are assigned classroom "chores" in pairs on rota basis.

Responsibilities include opening the windows (for so-called "Stoßlüftung" - lovely word), sweeping the debris away from around your feet and handing you the class registration book (thoughtfully opened at the right page, naturally!). That means as a teacher you can simply get on and teach.

That said, whilst I've been writing this I've been putting off preparing tomorrow's lessons. And correcting some 30 exercise books. Some things in teaching never change.....