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".

Have you spoken to the school about it NbyN?

What's his teacher like NN? Could you first speak to the teacher? They sound so unbending at that school, I think I would prefer the teacher to bring it up with the head or for you and the teacher to do so together. I should think it is possible.

There is a girl in our class whose dp want her moved up a year but the teacher felt she was socially not yet ready although she would have handled the work well enough. She is also one of the oldest in the class.

I know a dm from music school who kept her twins back a year so they started school a year late. However she saw after the first term that her dd had not made any friends and asked for her to be moved up a year to year 2 and the school agreed although she was a year behind, had not learnt the maths or Schreibschrift and was not ahead of her class in reading or anything really. Apparently it was no problem at all. The school can certainly do it mid-year, happens all the time.

Sandy, have e-mailed you.

that sounds depressing taipo. How long does it take to do her daily homework usually (if she isn't fighting it all the way)? We are in the calm before the storm atm - homework not until next year although how they are expected to do it on top of an 8 hour school day is beyond me.

Admylin did your sister's dc really just learn the times tables at school? I have had to teach dd them myself because although the school year finishes in June they have not yet even BEGUN to learn them at school and it is March already so when would they learn them? I began before Christmas I think, working through that 5 min heft and practising one table at a time. I make her skip count : 6,12,18 off by heart and then I get her to skip with a rope and chant them out as she goes. I write them on a piece of paper and stick it up on the wall where she eats breakfast (1 at a time) and I write them on cards and play a kind of bingo with them. Lot of hassle which is ok but annoying if elsewhere they just learn them at school.

We still have to tackle 8 and 9 (the worst) and they don't all sit, she learns one and seems to forget one so it is time-consuming. You have to really keep at it every day I think unfortunately.

OMG that mail is BRILLIANT finks, thank you so much. My printer has conked out so I will have to write it up and take it with me. If dh doesn't come along and play the big man-in-a-suit, I will not be responsible for my actions towards him! Wish YOU were coming with us in fact. (Was at the doctors first thing and she gave it to me the way I wanted, hopefully it is better, well we'll hve to see).

That is SUCH good advice. Also the second bit. Will have to see what she says, tbh I am bracing myself to expect the worst then if it is better than that, I will be a bit relieved!

So she did change it, then - well that's positive
Mail me with details pronto.
Think dh present might nail it at once. Chances?

really not sure how it will go. Think she will make up her mind very quickly and I doubt she'll let herself be swayed. If she is willing, she'll be able to accept it on the basis ofthe doctor's certificate. If she isn't willing, I don't think she is obliged to. She will haveto in some way take it more seriously I hope. I'll mail you the new text.

Sssandy, She gets homework every day for German and maths. If she's in the right mood which is luckily most days now she has finished it within an hour. If not, and yesterday was one of those days, it can be anything up to 3 hours. What year is your dd in?
I love your idea, NbyN, of giving dd sushi for every 1 she gets. That could work here as dd also loves sushi, it's one of the few things she will really eat loads of, apart from sweets and pasta.

she's in year 2 but not at a regular German school - it's a state bilingual so the set-up is a bit different. Three hours of homework sounds grim. What does she think of her school?

It shouldn't take 3 hours though! She is actually fairly settled now and has made 2 very good friends in her new class, but it has been a hard slog. She was in the first school for only 6 months, then we moved again and poor thing had to go to another school but that maybe wasn't such a bad thing because she could start afresh with at least some knowledge of the system. Hopefully we'll be staying put now. What's your dd's school like?

Hi -haven't posted on this thread yet, but some of you may remember i applied for kindergarten place for my DS last month. Do any of you know when we should hear if he is accepted? How long would it usually take? We are bottom of the list apparantly as he could go to Army pre-school. Maybe they offer everyone else first.
Anyway just thought I'd ask! Thanks.

Not sure trockodile, if I remember rightly we got in a few weeks after applying to several Kindergardens but might be a different system. If they don't answer soon then the next free places will be in September I would think. Still they could let you know as soon as they have made the lists after the pre-schoolers have registered at their future schools maybe. Depends then on when the registration date for school is too.

SSSandy, glad they changed that letter for you. Good luck tomorrow, let us know what happened.

Yesterday after school I was so shocked at how one of teh Erzieherinen spoke to some dc and then mad at mayself because I only thought of something to say when it wa stoo late, I always do that.
Some dc from ds's class and ds were playing cards around one of those stone ping-pong tables in the courtyard after the last lesson, and I was standing just next to them watching with dd. Suddenly an Erzieherin marched over and yelled 'go on be off home, you lot aren't Hort kids' - in a really nasty voice. She was supervising the smaller dc in the playground but ds and his mates weren't bothering anyone, they were playing very seriously infact. Talk about being thrown out of the place, and I was so shocked that she would dare say that when I was standing right there - you know that gobsmacked feeling that I just told them to play another time and we left. Rude, rude and unlogical and that's Berlin where Ganztagschulen are supposed to introduced every where.

Thank you for suggestions re ds1's possible Ueberspring.
Well, I spoke to his teacher quite by chance today, so broached teh subject with her.
She said "I can't say anything, it would be [the Rektor's] decision.
I tried to get her to say even if it was theoretically possible, but she would not budge from this stance, even when I left a long inviting pause in the conversation.

Now, this Rektor is a horrible man who I loathe. Last year, he refused to discuss any alternatives to putting ds down into the class below, but forcibly did it. He once put a child down just because the child had been away for a year, doing school in another country - "because he hasnt completed Yr x in Bavaria."
It is not just me who hates him, that opinion is pretty much shared in the town.

So I think that ds's teacher knows that ds has as much chance of going back up as he has of going to the moon. I may be wrong, but I suspect that they would sit back and watch him trying his heart out, and then not let him go up, however well he does.

It is all so chancy - I dont want to move, unless Im certain that ds will not get the same treatment in another school.

NN she is probably scared of the head too, he sounds awful. When you say you are scared to move, do you mean to another school there or to another town? Time permitting, I think you could make an appointment with a head of another local school to discuss the possibility of moving your ds but moving him into the right year. I feel sorry for him, I don't find it good for his psychological well-being at school. Long-term this kind of thing can affect his attitude to school and his willingness to learn so a good head should be willing to reappraise the situation. However yours is anything but unfortunately.

Would there be any harm in submitting a written request for a reappraisal, asking the head to consider moving ds up on the basis of his improved German, improved grades and maturity cf his classmates which prevents him building friendships with them, the age gap being so great?

admylin, I am afraid that I don't appreciate the whole concept of Erzieher at school. I even think they are under-qualified for Kindergarten. That doesn't stop some of them being lovely people of course; however I have been shocked quite often at the way they speak to school children, not just in the playground. What with all the masses of unemployed qualified teachers, I don't think we need Erzieher in the schools at all

Trocodile, it is so long ago now I'm afraid I can't remember. I thought they let people know around March/April if they had a place from September. Why not just drop by in the morning and ask? I don't think they would mind. Here it's normal to call and enquire

Thanks

do you need to register for the army pre-school if you don't get this kg place trock or does ds have a place there regardless?

OMG, I knew I should not read this thread. Now I really am dreading DD going to school.

Trockodile
When they let you know about the place depends on the town, afair. We had to hand in our applications by middle of February. The Leiterin had a meeting with the ohter kindergartens in the village to discuss which child was being offered a place in which kita. Then they will start letting the parents know.

Depends how quick the Leiterin is, give her a ring and ask. They have had this new Kibiz law so are pretty busy at the moment, perhaps that is why she has not called yet.

I had better ring the army one i suppose, it should be ok. Will give it a couple of weeks with the German ones -I applied to 4 in the end!

I can ask in our kita when they are letting the parents know. I think it is different this year because of the new law.

trockodile, in our town they had the meeting to divvy the children up between the kigas some time in April. Nobody got officially told before that, I think. I'd ring the friendliest one and ask them.

thank you SSandy - you are probably right about the teacher not wanting to get on the wrong side of the head. Just, I have the feeling that trying to get ds back in his right class would be getting on the head's wrong side, because it would be akin to criticising his decision to move ds down.

It is an awkward time for ds, because if he goes up, he would be in the 4th class now. And of course, he wouldnt make the gymnasium before the end of this year.
With nachhilfe, he will realistically be doing 1s and 2s by teh end of this year, but I dont think anyone is going to let him skip year 4.
They have got us over a barrel, and I cant see anything we can do about it.

If his grades are good enough now, they might conceivably agree to move him up a year but there is not much of the school year left so how would they compute his end of year grade for year 4? I think that may be a practical hindrance, idiotic as it sounds.

I agree you cannot in any way criticise him/the school because he will just close down and dig his heels in and you will get nowhere with it.

I will think about it tomorrow and maybe we can all come up with what might be a realistic approach to the school. I suppose you do have to try and get him moved but I can understand your reluctance to approach this man again.

So you think if he gets moved up now and has a tutor, he is likely to achieve 1s and 2s for what is left of year 4 work? Has he kept up with the year 4 maths or just repeated year 3 work so far this year whilst improving his German?

He has just repeated yr 3 work. I have been so wrapped up with dd's hauptschule crisis, and latterly, with my other ds, who seems to think he doesnt have to do homework, that I've only just got round to thinking about ds1.

Prob is, he has to prove himself first, and it's a bit late in the year now. At the moment he is getting no help at all because I have had to direct the help to the other 2, so ds1's marks are just average except in english. But I know him, and I know he's OK now, and will quickly start to perform well given teh amount of help the other children are getting.
I think he can prove himself by the end of this year - but what then?
Even if I got the realschule to accept him into the 5th year by some miracle, the gymnasium might make him repeat the 5th year.

And if he goes to a montessori hauptschule (also a poss) then the gymnasium will also make him repeat the 5th year when he changes.
Every time you move you tend to throw a Repeat the Year around here.

computing the grades is not a problem, because they would just get him to take the exam.

Question is, could I coach him enough between now and may to do the 4th year exam? Its only 3 months, prob not.