German Schools

[finknottle]

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".

How can you not be a pushy parent though Taipo with this system? I know one dm who is quite laid back - out of necessity really. She has 5 dc and you can't tutor them all intensively whilst doing everything else you need to do. They do what they can and if they don't make it to Gymnasium, they go to Realschule. I would find it so hard to be as relaxed about it as she is knowing that they have to go through Gymnasium to have all their options open to them when they leave school.

What I find odd too is the assumption that a lot of people have that their dc will NEVER make it to Gymnasium anyway. I met a mum from dd's kg in the street a week or so back and she said, "oh Jill (aged 7) will never get Abitur or go to university, I know that". Since she is not all that well educated herself, she just assumes Gymnasium is out of their reach. I found that a bit sad.

actually the more I am reading about all this testing and thinking what it will be like when dd is sitting maths test after maths test, the less I am liking the idea of year 3. Sounds like she is doing really well Taipo.

I find it wrong to be punishing 8-9 year olds for the marks they get in a dictation. It just sounds so Dickensian to me although I am sure the dp mean well and know better than I do how to work the system

Yes, I've come across that attitude too, Sssandy. A friend of mine who has a Hauptschulabschluss said recently that she was actually a bit worried about her very able dd getting into gymnasium because she doesn't know if she'll be able to help her dd with the work. I found this very sad.

well if the primaries are like this Taipo with permanent stress and testing, I am not really thrilled at the prospect of gymnasium tbh

I think she's doing really well too, considering she's only been in the system for little over a year. Dictations are very Dickensian and here they are very harshly marked. You literally have to have no mistakes at all to get a 1. Dd is pretty good at them but always makes at least 1 mistake so usually gets a 1/2. Last time she got a 2 because she hadn't capitalized 2 words.

It's not a thrilling prospect, is it? Dc here now have 8 years at gymnasium instead of 9 which means they are under even more pressure to cram the same amount of work into less time.

hmm find it hard to judge the system fairly because I don't know what education is like in other countries these days - say Scandinavia for instance.

Maybe all this emphasis on accuracy and neatness pays off. Dd is so slapdash though, I don't see her doing well at this kind of thing.

I would like to see more of a chance for dc to express themselves creatively though. Perhaps they do all that alongside this dictation work but language to me must be a lot more than forming letters correctly and getting the orthography right.

It would also make it easier on dp if they were writing stories/essays and getting marks for originality etc, wouldn't it?

d's neatness, or lack of it, is an issue for her teacher but I don't think it will count for that much in the end. I've taken sneaky looks in her friends' books and have taken heart by the fact that they are no neater than dd

She does get to write creatively in the essays (still a test though). There is no breakdown of the marking but I think credit is given for originality. Marks don't seem to be deducted for spelling or grammar at least.

you HAVE to do a bit of spying, it's part of being a mum I think

That all sounds less grim actually than I feared, thanks Taipo. Must admit do feel tempted to put dd back inot kg some days though!

Don't you wish we dp got to give the TEACHERS reports at the end of year?! Pupil evaluations would be nice too

dd is all for having her class teacher put in the stocks in fact

It is sad though when dd tells me atleast 3 of her class mates broke down in tears when they got their results from this maths test. One girl hides her tests at the back of her box file and goes into a sulk the whole day if she got a bad mark. Dd was not too bothered because I try to tel her just to try her best and to really concentrate. We're going to have to do alot more practise though.

SSandy your 2nd year sounds far ahead of our 3rd year. This last test was on division with 'rest' and schriftliche addition/subtraction and abit of geometry - we sat half of Sunday with ds too and did division against each other - I read out a sum and then we all did it to see who was fastest and she got them all right and had a good time too, we all enjoyed it and I tried to make it a fun thing but obviously didn't help in the test.

I've spied in other kids books too. Once I told ds that I'd had a look in his friend's school book to compare while they were in the garden and he was shocked, mum how could you etc , made me feel really naughty! The friend is in the same year as dd and it reassured me that dd is doing quite well compared to the majority of her class so can't complain.

doubt very much that our class is ahead of anyone in the world in maths admylin

what do you think of this to take on holiday with us? I have to get some things together to take with us because if I do it in English it totally confuses dd when I say 32 she thinks I mean 23 - do you find your dc do that too with numbers? Also who knows if they have a different method over in the US, h says to buy some school books there but for maths I'd rather stick to what they will be doing in Germany.

Hard to say without seeing inside admylin. I am doubtful aboutthe fun factor really but it's not expensive, might be worth a try. I'd buy maths (or math I suppose) books in the USA. I much prefer their approach to maths.

Maybe something like this for grade 3. This is a grade 2 book. Mind you they are ahead of the German curriculum generally I've found.
search.barnesandnoble.com/Summer-Skills-Daily-Activity-Workbook/Flash-Kids-Editors/e/9781411498297/f lashkids

various grades and books in that series:
here

Just wondering when do they tell you what teacher your class will be having next year? Do they notify you at some point or do you find out on the first day of the new school year?

You are right, a different method might just help dd to click in maths. I can't find out where she is having problems becaus eat home she seems to be able to manage quite well. Last night we did addition/subtraction of sums like 427+126 or 999-79 and we did it in a race against each other and she was almost as quick as me. She can do all the methods for multiplication and division so I don't know what else to do except keep on repeating and repeating.

I think I'll have a look around a book shop and take some stuff from here and then have a shopping day with one of my nieces or nephews in the US or even my SIL - she's a montessori pre school teacher!

Depends on the school - here the head can only make the timetables for next year if the staff stay the same but if she has new staff - she has to wait 'til they start in the new term to coordinate timetables Atleast that's our head's excuse!

It's just there is one teacher I really like, she is so lovely and SMILEY. If I knew I had her, I would feel very differently about it IYKWIM. Maybe I shoudl just tell her that and find out what class she'll be teaching!

Well I've always asked if ds's teacher will be staying as class teacher and she always has said yes - hope she didn't notice the forced smile afterwards because no one wanted her to stay! Wouldn't harm to ask just like small talk!

yes I'll hunt her down. No idea where she is from (one of the English speaking teachers). Won't miss our current class teacher at all, sarky cow; although to give her credit I do think she is quite good and creative in her approach to teaching but she is dead nasty underneath it all. I suppose we all have different ways of letting off steam. The last teacher we had used to stamp her feet and scream , this one gets all cold and nasty and puts the dc down. Don't know what I find worse really. Think I'm with dd on the stocks actually.

Oh we've got quite a few stamping screaming ones at Grundschule Neues Tor - I think they are the East German ones. I was shocked the first few weeks when I picked the dc up and heard the screams coming from the class rooms. Then the door would open and out would march smiling sweet teacher!

OMG I know. You're staring at them in horror, utterly gobsmacked and they're smiling at you and nodding pleasantly assuming you'll think it is the most normal thing in the world that they are screaming at a class of 6 year olds and that you the parent will be fine with it.

Well, ds has a really nice old maths teacher who retires this year. He's true East German, been through the whole system etc. Once he told me , you know when I use dto have a naughty child in my class I would look up where his father worked and then phone the Gewerkschaft (DDR was big on Gewerkschaft) and tell them so and so's son is messing about in school, have a word with your comrade - and he said it worked every time, the father would get in trouble at work and be so mad at the child who from then on always behaved and he said if the father was in the Partei, he would phone there too. Talk about old stasi eh. Now he regrets that he can't get his pupils to behave in the good old ways.