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Living overseas

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Original poster

German Schools

663 replies

finknottle · 15/02/2008 10:09

Get it off your chest

There are, as anywhere, good and bad aspects to the school system.

So if you want advice, help or an embittered rant - feel free.

On a postive note - anyone see the thread on Primary about security? I've just taken dd to kg and on the way back wanted to drop off a school library book ds2 has had since before Christmas and forgot again.
All I did is walk in, went to his classroom and left it on his PE kit so he'll see it at break.

No one worries unduly about security here. The caretaker has an office (all glass) outside the main building but he's rarely in it.

Is it only village schools? Looks so odd to me to have a school "locked down".

OP posts:

admylin · 29/04/2008 08:39

Taipo can your dd manage the cursive style they use? Do you also find that German adults handwriting is hard to read sometimes?They don't seem to bother at out school, when i asked about ds's writing - which was quite messy a year and a half ago, teh teacher just said 'oh, as long as I can read it and make out what he's written it's just fine'. She wasn't going to waste any time doing writing practise!

Ds took ages to write neatly in it . We got some sheets of writing practise from an American homeschooling site and that helped my 2 alot by just doing a sheet a day. Still I'm surprised that she had to write it again, main thing is the answers were correct!

taipo · 29/04/2008 09:05

'as long as I can read it...' was the attitude of dd's teacher in London and they wrote on plain paper so the lines were all over the place. I used to wonder whether that was the right attitude until we came across the other extreme here: when dd started school here her new teacher insisted she learnt the Lateinische Ausgangsschrift that they all use here, so we practised it for a week over the winter half-term last year. I thought she did really well but the teacher still found fault with it, complaining if the letters weren't quite slopey enough! She really was the most pernickety teacher I've ever come across and I think, even though dd can write neatly if she puts her mind to it, she sometimes chooses not to as an act of rebellion.

The new teacher is not quite so fussy but still writes 'ordentlich schreiben!' all over dd's work. I had a sneaky look at her friend's book the other day and her writing is even messier than dd's if anything so I'm not going to get stressed out about it or put too much pressure on dd when everything else is going well at the moment. I did get mil to practise with her last week though!

Interesting that it's so different at your dc's school.

SSSandy2 · 29/04/2008 09:09

whispers.... I was SO glad that dd doesn't have to learn German Schreibschrift. I was so SCARED of it. I really was. She is learning normal cursive but the odd thing is that some letters get joined and some don't and Iwonder in fact whether German Schreibschrift (dare I admit it?) is actually better in the long run because once you have finally got the hang of it , it is more fluent.

Admylin, can you post the link to that American site if you have it? I think dd needs more practice than she gets at school. That would be good for us to do over the Pfingstferien

SSSandy2 · 29/04/2008 09:11

rewriting a maths test - that is so bizarre though.
I think dd and I would just collapse with the giggles at the inanity of it. I couldn't take a teacher seriously who wanted a MATHS test rewritten because it wasn't ordentlich enough. We have enough worries with the CONTENT of maths never mind the form

admylin · 29/04/2008 09:13

Lol at sneaky look at her friend's book the other day! It is reassuring though isn't it. I've done it myself when they've had school friends round straight after school with their school bags and I was quite proud of dd after seeing how bad one boy's work was and it sort of helped me to ease up on her abit too.

The other day they had to write the end of a dream that they had been reading about in school and dd wrote quite alot but it came back marked all over with red pen so I went to the teacher because I just couldn't tell if it was terrible or OK for her age/level. He said it was very good and normal to make the mistakes she had made and most importantly for me - none of the mistakes were especially because of her language, German being her 2nd language etc. Infact it was so good that he'd sent the rest of the class off home with the homework again to write atleast as much as dd rather than the 3 or 4 line sthey had handed in!

admylin · 29/04/2008 09:24

Here SSSandy, this is where I got the hand writing sheets from.

admylin · 29/04/2008 09:24

Here SSSandy, this is where I got the hand writing sheets from.

taipo · 29/04/2008 09:30

It is bizarre, isn't it? Especially as it must have been legible enough for her to get a good mark.

I get frustrated that dd's teacher praises so little. Surely it doesn't take much to write a couple of encouraging words at the bottom of an essay. Dd does at least one graded test a week and the teacher also writes the class average at the bottom so I can tell from the mark whether she's doing well or not. There's no indication otherwise.

Dh learnt Schreibschrift at school. He never writes like that now though as it would be far too girly!

SSSandy2 · 29/04/2008 09:32

Thanks admylin, the letters are a bit different to what dd is being taught though. They aren't using a book just copying what the teacher writes down for them so I feel a bit at sea with it.So there must be various styles taught then

SSSandy2 · 29/04/2008 09:34

taipo wonder how he writes then. I find adult German handwriting very difficult to read. Whenever anyone writes anything down for me, I really struggle to understand it but they can all read mine. Isn't that odd?

SSSandy2 · 29/04/2008 09:35

and I'm slapdash but I think my letters are more rounded so they are a bit clearer

admylin · 29/04/2008 09:41

Yes, I know it's the US style - although very cursive, it is abit too curly on some letters but I waited 'til they had gone through the school stuff then used the sheets just to get them used to the flow sort of thing and I have always told ds that he doesn't have to write such funny letters all his life but in school he just has to do what they want! A bit naughty of me to say that maybe but he seems to understand and when he writes to his cousins or grandparents in the UK he changes his T's and some other letters to a plainer style!

taipo · 29/04/2008 09:41

He writes very plainly - no extravagent loops or curves. It's still hard to read though. Fil used to write letters to us regularly and I could never read them

SSSandy2 · 30/04/2008 10:47

can anyone recommend a nice book/good online site for reading comprehension in German (year 2/3)? Dd likes doing reading comprehension in English but we don't get any for German and she keeps asking about it. I haven't found anything in the bookstore. I would need to order something I think.

taipo · 30/04/2008 10:59

I don't know of any but I would imagine there must be some out there. Dd started getting reading comprehensions in German half way through Y3. We haven't practised at home though.

trockodile · 05/05/2008 08:21

First morning for DS at Kindergarten today! He was very cheerful and waved good-bye very happily 'you go home mummy and tidy my trousers!' -woman know your place!

Lets hope all is cheerful at pick up time.

I of course am bereft

admylin · 05/05/2008 09:23

wow trockodile, you can be really proud of him! Both mine cried when they started Kindergarten and they didn't start 'til they were 4 years old.

trockodile · 05/05/2008 12:01

Thanks Admylin-he was great and enjoyed his morning [sigh of relief emoticon!]

Only hiccup was that I had taken in swimming costume (in accordance with the instruction list) and he wanted to wear them when he went outside. His teacher hadn't understood (and none of the other children had them yet, only 21 degrees here!) He changed into them when I collected them and is having a great time in the garden now!

Other than that, very happy and looking forward to going back on Wed.

Hope all the other children are doing well in their schools and Kitas. Lots of bank holidays in May, a good month to start!

trockodile · 05/05/2008 12:03

BTW 'them' consisted of uv suit-shorts,top and hat. He is very pleased with them!

admylin · 05/05/2008 12:07

Sounds like he had a great time! Sorry can't remember, but is his German fluent? It's so amazing how they just learn the langauge isn't it. Mine started with very basic German infact ds had hardly any and he somehow managed.

I'm in the middle of the stressfull search for flat and schools in hanover at the moment. An agent just rang me with 2 flats to offer but no kitchen and I don't think I would have time to get one put in when we come back from USA in August, stress, stress.

admylin · 05/05/2008 12:09

In ds's Kindergarten they were all allowed to strip off naked and play in the garden when it was hot I was a bit especially since the garden was not really hidden to view of the whole housing estate area it was in and the passing town bus.

trockodile · 05/05/2008 13:03

No -he knows no German! He is keen to learn though, and has mastered 'guten morgan' 'tschuss' 'bis spater' and of course 'kleine roter traktor' -all the essentials!

Good luck with the flat and school search-the German thing of no kitchen always amazes me. We are an hour from Hanover, don't know it at all, but do let us know if we can help with anything.

admylin · 05/05/2008 20:14

Isn't it amazing how they just pick it up! Wish I could learn langauges so quickly. I remember the pain when I started learning German.

I know, if I have to buy a kitchen I'm definately not putting a fitted one in, I'll get one of those free standing ones so I can take the thing with me if I move again! There are some nice ones so I must admit I wouldn't mind if I had to get one, quite fancy a nice new kitchen (oh the joys of being a SAHM and getting secretely excited about a new kitchen, my work place )

taipo · 15/05/2008 17:23

Ds is due to start school in September and mil wants to give him a Ranzen for his birthday in June. Anyone got any tips about which brands are good and which ones I should avoid? Dd has a Scout one as do about 80% of the children round here.

I think they're all ugly and horrendously expensive but I suppose he's got to have one

Original poster

finknottle · 15/05/2008 18:33

Scout = hideous imo. Some of the newer models have such narrow side pockets (or none?) you can't fit a drink bottle in them.
I got the boys Lego ones, a Bionicle and a Ritter and as I really liked the size, am v pleased that dd has chosen a girly Lego one which is miles less pyschedelic, v "ergonomic" and light. Also has Turnbeutel, Maeppchen etc.
Boys found the Lego ones "cool" and dd has thankfully abandoned ideas of the mutant Scout unicorns.

OP posts:

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