Neue Stifte, neues Maeppchen: new German school thread

[finknottle]

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.

Centimeter then, not decimeter?
Last word I mean.

Yes, the letters stay together, the boys have these exercises in the Zauberlehrling.

Thanks , we've given up. Packed it away and will tell you the answer tomorrow ! Ds says the prize will be a con anyway!

verstehe Bahnhof

Well, meeting with the German teacher for ds went OK. I had exactly 8 minutes to speak to him so I just let him talk and asked my 'big' question, is ds going to manage the course without a real German to help and he said yes, it'll be no problem for him and he's improved in the last couple of months too. Phew...

By the way I checked his sums for the Rätsel homework and he got some wrong so in the end we were trying to work with the wrong letters. It was Siebentausend millimeter sind so lang wie siebem meter.

That meeting sounds positive, admylin. How are things atm? Have you given any more thought to moving to the UK?

My two have gone back today after a week off. Ds was up bright and early but dd had to be dragged from her bed.

So I was right then?

7000mm = 700cm = 70 dm

next step 70 dm = 7 m.

Thank feck, was doing dm at the school with pupils last week and was worried I'd got it all wrong and confused them!

S2 still off, is washed out after that weird virus. He has done about 4 sums. And has a PILE of stuff to learn for tomorrow. Am mulling over just doing maths today (ignoring the 8 other things) and making him do the test tomorrow with the class rather than his going back to school and getting more homework plus having to do the test later in the week.

Hate it. Am hiding in my study pretending to work instead of getting on with it.

Have decided to let h learn for science with him as it's too hard switching Eng & Ger. H can explain Mondfinsternis etc with him. Phew.

I cannot wait till next school year. S2 will be in the Ganztagsschule & the head said the school day ends at 4 and the children shouldn't do any work at home. S1 has been in GTS now for 1.5 yrs and rarely learns for tests at home - a bit at the start of Y5. They practise over and over at school. The only thing they do have to learn at home is: English vocab - ha.

That's good about your s, admylin.

Still don't understand why we only had 2 days off and everyone else had a week.

The ganztagschule I would maybe send dd too is until 4pm too. I keep thinking it seems such a long day from 8am to 4pm but as long as they really don't have homework it should be OK. I will have to check that out on the open day, I'd need it in writing and signed by a lawyer though! Got a feeling they might only start at 9am too which would make it all the more attractive as an option.

In Berlin the bilingual classes had school from 8 to 4 but they also got homework and alot of them traveled from across Berlin (portugese Europa school) so I only heard of people complaining, too long, dc too tired, no time to join clubs etc. I hope the IGS here is better.

What are your school times finknottle? I know I was so pleased we weren't in one of those areas where they actually have lessons from 7:30am, they exisit in parts of Germany.

By the way, what is going to be in the maths test? We're practising daily but it's only going in slowly. They are doing money so sums with money and train ticket prices so 90 Euro is return to Berlin and first class is half as much again, how much is first class? Verdoppeln und halbieren etc, not difficult but just needs practise.

There is a private Ganztaggymnasium round the corner from us. Our neighbours' children go there and they are are very happy with it (both parents work full time), especially the fact that there is no hw to do when they come home.

Dd starts at 7:45 every day exept Wednesday and ds starts at 8:30 every day. It's the same school so I find that really annoying.

Oh yes, that's something that really bugs me here. Why can't dc have the same school times. I used to have that right from the 1st year. One coming out before the other but it not being worth going home so hanging about waiting. It's not so bad now that ds walks alone but if he has (as on Thursdays) a heavy bag, a sports bag and his trumpet in big heavy case I go back out to meet him, it's unbelievably heavy some days.

Primary Y1 & Y2 8-12; Y3 & Y4 8-1

s1, Y6, 7.40-4pm Mon-Thurs. Fri 7.40-11am

That's a long day for s1, esp as they have Ganztagsklassen, i.e. lessons till 4. Timetable-wise this year they have more Sport/AGs in the afternoon. Plus periods called "Nebenfach" where they can do extra work or the teacher revises for upcoming tests with them. Works well as it gives them a break unless there's a big Arbeit coming up.

The IGS is 8-4 and 8-1pm on Fridays - what is it with Germans and Fridays?
The IGS doesn't have Ganztagsklassen as s2's school, rather the standard Ganztagsschule:

Unterricht till 1pm
lunch
2pm: Hausaufgaben/Lernzeit/Förderunterricht
3pm: AGs

Our primary has that set-up too but parents have to check & correct the homework after school, which is tough after such a long day, esp for working parents. Esp Y3 and Y4.

That's what you need to find out.

Did I mention I put d in the GTS a month ago? She had so few friends to play with in the afternoons as all of them are on the GTS or Hort. Which meant she was here most afternoons speaking English with me & s2 and playing alone while we battled through his sodding homework & accompanying tears and rows.

We had thought about it next year for Y2 as she loved being at kiga all day and it was great for her German and her social skills. They have no AGs, just 1 woman who looks after them, she's wonderful and d loves it. I only do homework with her on Fridays when there's no GTS. She is v happy. She told me she doesn't like Fridays because there's no GTS!

So next year I should have all 3 at school till 4 - no homework, at least not regularly.

Oh bugger. 11 o'clock. Must do maths. Test is a right mish-mash:

volume: l, ml
weight: kg, t, g
size: m, dm, cm, km
time
Long division & multiplication with all the above and the dreaded Textaufgaben which s2 never understands. Sigh.

I loathe the maths text book. One reason I stood for election was to get onto the Schulbuchausschuss. Wasn't reckoning with becoming chair but am at least on the Ausschuss and found out last week we are finally going to choose new maths books. Plus s2's teacher is on it too and she hates the book as well.

That's funny finknottle - my 2 always found the idea of having to stay longer in Hort or GTS the worst possible thing that could happen to them. especially ds.

Dd might like to go to a Hort wher eon eof her new best friends is every afternoon but not every day.

Anyway, when you have them all in school until 4pm will you send them with a packed lunch or do they get school meals? That's problem nr. 2 here - they both hate the idea of having school meals. Must admit the ones in Berlin didn't smell very nice or they'd get Kaisersschmarm (whatever) or Reibekuchen with Apfelmuß which is auserirdisches essen as far as my 2 are concerned (it's my fault I know I brought them up on curry and stuffed them with salt n vinager crisps and bacon butties when in UK)

I think Hort is not comparable with a GTS. I can imagine dc not being happy at one of the few having to stay on for Hort when everyone else goes home/to each other's place, at least when they are small and just starting out at school, say year 1,2

At a GTS, they are all in the same boat so this problem doesn't arise and I think in fact they enjoy the playing together aspect. It also gives the dp a break who then don't have to actually organise play-dates, since the dc do their socialising at school.

My only grind with the long school day is that you have no time to work with dc at home afterwards if they need help or take them to any special activities. They are just too tired. FOr dp who work full-time I think it is just a convenient option and saves them child-minidng and Hort fees.

I do find 7:40 - 11:00 am highly inconvenient scheduling. Too early for the child to start, too early for the dp to pick them up. Plain daft.

I found they all like the playtime after school at school. After all it is the nicest bit. I was just never keen on this Erzieher thing, that they are in the care of an Erzieher and not a teacher. I just don't think they are well-educated/trained enough. Maybe that's snobby and wrong, I don't know but I felt like that about it. You can get lovely Erzieher but they are not all nice to the dc IME.

A friend of mine took her ds out of a GTS (bilingual) in January after some of his classmates tried to hang him (!) whilst the so-called supervisor was out and about flanning about doing who knows what. Luckily as year 5's they did not yet know quite how to hang someone effectively so the noose didn't hold. Can you believe it? She saw the rope burn marks around his neck and asked him otherwise he would not have even told her.

I might also add that this was in one of the most affluent districts of Berlin and the families are generally middle-class (at least the German ones), so this is not budding gangster territory - and it was girls who did it.

OMG, hanging

In our Berlin school the dc went shopping and even found the great activity of riding up and down in the Charite hospital lift which was near the school building. All because they weren't being watched over or given anything to do.

I used to turn up to meet my 2 dc and only find 3 of ds's class on the premesis (ds included thank goodness)

I know horrific, isn't it? Who knows how that came about. Think it is a very rare type of occurrence though. Certainly hope it is anyway.

The 7.40 start is OK for secondary as he walks or cycles or scoots and is there in 10 mins max on foot. Plus he can go alone, this is a wee village & he's 12 now (sob) - so no question of anyone being picked up or taken.

Next year he'll have to take the train (10 mins on bike to station and then 5 min ride) so will leave home at 7, but that's what most village children do already, he's lucky his y5 & y6 are in the village.

We are v lucky here in that the GTS is working well - they found AGs & too many staff too stessful for Y1 hence only 1 woman doing it this year and no AGs. The other years have some good stuff. And it would never happen that the children were left unattended, I may and do criticise the head but the school seems like a haven of sanity compared to what you 2 have experienced.

The Hort is also v well regarded, they do loads of stuff with the children. GTS has taken off as it's free apart from meals.

Admylin, I do all 3 sandwich boxes for the Frühstückspause at 9.45 and d and s1 get a bit more for the afternoon. They have a catering company for lunches, costs us ca. 50 euros per child per month, 3 euros a day. Is as good as it gets, tbh for catering.

S2 and I are having a break. We're stuffing our faces with sweets and I'm being deliberately light-hearted having found him in tears when I went downstairs earlier. I think it doesn't help that he does the maths in English so he first translates it and then isn't 100% sure of what he has to do.
S1 otoh, does Maths in English and German.

Fascinating how different the 3 are re the bilingualism but am having a(nother) phase where all I see is the trouble it causes...

Why was your s in tears finknottle? Is he feeling better today?

Do they always tell you which topics will be in the test? Dd announced yesterday that there will be a maths test next wednesday for sure but no list of topics and I can't figure out/remember up to where they went in the last test. I've told her to invite a friend to revise together after school (teacher suggested she try it) but I'm not sure they will know how to revise - they're 9 years old will I have to sit with them or write little mock test papers?

My 2 always did maths in German because it confused them too much. It's a pain because it's unnatural to me to explain and do stuff in German but we have to stick to it for maths. I still can't believe bilingualism is not even seen as something positive in school here. In UK it's always something special (or it was when I lived there).

Poor ds, came home with a 4- and a 4 for his last two efforts in art. Just made me think, in my old school you had to be really really crap at art to get a D grade. He's so fed up.

you know the Russian art school I sent dd to? The teacher would send off their work to competitions in Russia and they won a lot of prizes. For me it was well worth the money since I am not at all arty crafty and can't be bothered with that kind of thing (although I secretly wish I was good at it tbh and have visions of me hand-sewing a patchwork quilt and so on).

Well anyway, I spoke to the mum of an older boy I met there who was at that time in year 5 and she said he got a 4 in art. She was just unable to fathom why because her son does fabulous art at that art-school. I have seen some of his work and he is really very good. So I asked her how it could be that he got a 4 in art. She said apparently his teacher says he has to always draw in pencil before painting. They do painting as a sort of colouring in exercise. He didn't always do that so she marked him down.

They also had to all colour in certain things the same colour. As I understood it the sky had to be blue etc whereas he wanted to do a dramatic purple sunset. She marked him down for that too.

yes I agree admylin, can't believe giving someone a D in art really.

Just another 'thing' to get over I guess! It's the same here, they were set a task of doing a scene with hills and either a house or village type thing in the distance but all using different shades of one colour. Ds did studies and sketches and he probably shouldn't have had a tree up front. Who knows, and he certainly doesn't care anymore...going out to buy him a book now as he's flopped onto his bed in fed up mode.

I know part of his mood is h saying if they bring good grades home he'll pay for us to go to UK. It's so unfair saying that to the dc.

isn't art about individuality though? I mean I can understand you have to stick to the task at hand because they are concentrating on something particular, perhaps perspective or shading but fgs why can oyu not have a tree in the front?

should they even be marking an individual picture with a grade? I can't remember that from art classes at school, can you?