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Neue Stifte, neues Maeppchen: new German school thread

749 replies

finknottle · 18/09/2008 11:47

Am starting in positive manner as we're 7 weeks into the new school year and all 3 of mine are settled and happy.
Well, d won't be if she does have head lice and has to stay off because she loves school so much.
S1 is in the second year of secondary & still thriving. Is class prefect for the first time which was a great ego boost.
S2 is in Y4 & has been doing better in class but his test results are still lousy (unfortunate choice of phrase if we are lice-ridden) and his teacher is convinced it's the language issue. He's trying harder which is a good sign. He lost the prefect election by 1 vote to his best friend and was chuffed to bits to be his "deputy" and that so many voted for him.

Had forgotten how wonderful the "erste Klasse" is.

OP posts:
Nighbynight · 03/02/2009 09:28

there is a strike on the U bahn & buses this morning, so I was plannign to work from home, I cant even get my VPN up and running, ah well it is late now, probably the traffic will be a bit clearer. My hours this week are dire, so far.
dd2 screeched for about an hour as she didnt want to go to kiga. Feel rotten.

ZZZen · 03/02/2009 10:24

I think you should go to the UK NN, definitely but I understand the horrendous logistics of the whole thing.Would you contemplate living further north where house prices are cheaper. There is some lovely countryside in parts.

Realise it is all job-dependent and hard for you since you are the sole earner and have responsibility for so many people.

I would not go to live in London tbh although I met a Brazilian who had lived in Berlin for 18 years and his dream was to move to London, specifically actually to Richmond. He said having been there, he found it the most beautiful place on earth, he had never seen a place he liked so much and he would love his dc to grow up there

ZZZen · 03/02/2009 10:27

I doubt very much there are any sink schools where admylin comes from, or gang knifings or anything like that. It does sound like a lovely place to grow up admylin. Think you were lucky to live there as a dc.

London is so expensive, isn't it, Taipo? I liked living in London when I was there but then I was not really in the rat-race and I didn't have dc to worry about and the schooling, socialisation and all the rest of it. I don't think I would like to live there now. But then I am not really a big city person anyway.

ZZZen · 03/02/2009 10:32

Mind you with kids I suppose I would not live in London itself but outside a bit and there are some very nice areas. So you get the best of both worlds, go in if you want to do decent shopping, have some culture. Stay home for peace and quiet and countryside. Comes down to money in the end though with London, doesn't it?

I am babbling. I have another play-date and I am trying not to think about it.

Nighbynight · 03/02/2009 10:33

Id love to live up north, but my sort of work is mostly along the m3, m4 or round cambridge. Also, must admit would be a bit twitchy to be so far from dover.

ZZZen · 03/02/2009 10:34

they have boats up north too though

How about Ireland? Quite fancy Dublin myself

ZZZen · 03/02/2009 10:35

dd wants to live on a FARM

I am so not farm material. I wouldn't have a clue what to do on a farm.

Specifically she wants to live on a farm in Italy and ahe is assiduously learning Italian. I think she will end up there one day. when she settles on something, she doesn't budge.

ErnestTheBavarian · 03/02/2009 10:36

Nighbynight , we are looking at moving back to UK: We have narrowed it down to Sutton - it's about the best LEA in the country, it's half an hour from London, but lots of green spaces and 'villagey feel' ( note dh went last weekend and gave it the thumbs up, I'm supposed to be going this weekend, though not in jeopardy as the country shuts down due to snow ) lots of very good schools - primary, secondary and grammars.

Also, house prices are not too bad atm - what size house would you be looking at? Seems like a good option to us.

Get in touch if you want to discuss. Done a lot of research recently

Nighbynight · 03/02/2009 11:14

zz I want a boat that goes to FRANCE!

Interesting ernest - I dont think I have a hope in hell of affording a house in Sutton with one normal sized salary though. I was thinking of doing a similar exercise myself to try and find the best place. but its got to be near my work, anyway.

ZZZen · 03/02/2009 11:21

One needs a yacht really.

However one neally crashed the last one trying to dock or moor or whatever the right term is

Nighbynight · 03/02/2009 11:35

lol
Ill settle for the Pride of Kent.

admylin · 03/02/2009 12:50

Thanks for that maths link on the other thread ZZZen, it looks good and I have a feeling ds doesn't want to get it and is having me on. Had a serious talk but nottelling off this morning with him about trying harder and practising just abit more. We did a dictation this morning and he only had 2 and a half mistakes (he tells me forgetting Pünkte is only half)

Nighbynight · 03/02/2009 19:36

ds did a diktat last week and had about 30 billion mistakes

the boy is seemingly incapable of writing capital letters.

the little talk that I had with his teacher about motivation clearly sank in though, because she wrote on the bottom "Well done, your handwriting has improved!"

Nighbynight · 03/02/2009 19:38

btw, admylin I love your new verb "to nottell off"

admylin · 04/02/2009 07:31

Tell me more about getting a teacher to understand that dc need a little motivation now and then! I need to have one of thos e'little talks' with a few of the teachers around here.

When I woke dd to go to school this morning she groaned, oh no I don't want to see that old Frau X. She's mad that she gave her a 4 in maths even though she's been trying hard. Obviously the grade was from the Klassenarbeit results and only abit from the Mitarbeit in lessons.

ErnestTheBavarian · 04/02/2009 08:58

incidentally, as you know, 2 of my dc got to IS. They absolutely loathe their (2 different) German teachers. Lessons not fun, too strict, too boring. Kids never enjoy this lesson - but never complain about any other lesson. And in thier report they just got, glowing in every single subject - except German. For both boys, the only neg. comments (and worst grades) were from German. really feel for you struggling with German schools. Our 1.5 years in swiss school were well 1st year good, the 2nd year was horrific. So glad to have got out of it.

admylin · 04/02/2009 09:24

I don't think we will last much longer to be honest unless a miracle happens and h is prepared to pay for tutors for both dc. He wants them to do well but he doesn't think it should cost a penny. If he still lived in India he'd have to send his dc to decent, probably private schools.

ZZZen · 04/02/2009 09:28

my dd utterly hated her teachers with the exception of one lovely teacher of religion. She really was a nice person and a great teacher. For the rest though she didn't just dislike them, she HATED them. We were talking about her class teacher and she said "Frau X should go to Tartaros for 15 years and when she comes out she should NEVER be allowed to teach children again." We were reading Greek legends retold for dc at the time).

I think the atmosphere at schools must be grim because my dd is generally pretty accepting of people but she couldn't handle the screaming and all the rest of it. Maybe more resilient dc just take that in their stride.

ErnestTheBavarian · 04/02/2009 09:31

yes, they say the German teachers are always shouting, and they're mean. They don't say this about any of the other T's

ZZZen · 04/02/2009 09:31

dh is India atm come to think of it (business for 3 weeks) admylin. He wasn't very impressed first phone call I got. Mind you he was in Calcutta and had just arrived there from Hong Kong, so the contrast was maybe too much of a shock. I would quite like to travel round India, lots of places I would like to see but don't know if I could cope with living there (the crowds, the poverty, leprosy). Would be hard I think to get used to that. I'd imagine the Indian elite have it pretty good and there schools are probably good too, albeit strict I'd imagine.

ZZZen · 04/02/2009 09:33

theIR schools grrrrrr
argh

admylin · 04/02/2009 09:48

Yes, in India good schools, old fashioned methods and cane get the results not sure if I would want that for my dc though!

I was shocked at the screaming teachers in Berlin. No idea how the training must differ, but in UK I've never heard of anything like it. You really get the impression that the teachers hate their jobs here and hate teh children mostly too. Although, dd was so lucky to get a nice teacher last time in Berlin but at the end I could see he was going to go into burn out stage, he was exhausting himself trying to do everything for the rest of the school too.

admylin · 04/02/2009 10:09

Where is finknottle these days?

would you just leave this or follow it up? Ds in English, which he now hates, has to translate aufstehen so he writes to stand up, but no it's a full minus point because aufstehen means to get up and nothing else is acceptable

It's so frustrating to see ds even become fed up in English, it's his mother tongue FGS, but I know I just have to ignore it - deep breaths, ommmm, still I feel sorry for him having to cope with that on top of everything else. He says it's painfull when he hears how they speak English like they say cet for cat and Herry for Harry and if I want to wind him up all I have to do is put on a German accent or say cerry thes please and he runs screaming with his hands on his ears.

ZZZen · 04/02/2009 10:12

don't think yours would be the ones getting caned though tbh. I'd have a total fit if anyone caned my dc though, I think I'd probably break both of their arms, restrained and dignified as I am. Dp must have been so much more accepting and laid back in the past, things they allowed schools to do to their dc.

Actually Dad was saying not long ago, he wouldn't like to be a teacher these days. He thinks they get so little respect from dc and from the dp and the dp are on at them about everything all the time. It's true when we were at school, my dp never had anything to do with the teachers other than on parent's day a quick meeting with the teacher. That was it.

ZZZen · 04/02/2009 10:14

This is why I REALLY did not want dd to attend classes in English as a foreign language.

I think that's wrong. If you said hinsetzen, aufstehen. Aufstehen surely means stand-up in that context.

I would let it go tbh from what you have said about her in the past.