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.

No, no, in German schools imagination is absolutely not required for art, in fact is a positive disadvantage.

I got a 5 in art when I was about 8 for putting a purple dog in my picture.

And I got a 4 for a lovely cat I knitted because i made her tail with a Strickliesl and the teacher said it was too thin.

FFS

Here in the UK ds got a commendation for a making a chair -- he'd turned it into an crocodile and it has amazing eyes and an eggbox mouth. he had to tout it all round the school to show each class, finishing up in the deputy head's office. I can't bring myself to throw it away, even though it's a bit battered now. In Gm he'd have got a failing grade for sure, because the crocodile's snout covered the seat, so you couldn't actually sit down on the chair. But what's a minor detail when you've had a really fantastic idea? Summed up for me the difference between my schooldays in Gm and here in the UK, really.

I'm glad my 2 don't show any signs of being particulary gifted in art or I'd be really frustrated here I think. DD got a 4 last year for a bag she had sewn and decorated. Admittedly it wasn't very good but she didn't deserve a 4 for it imo.

The likes of Damien Hurst or Rachel Whiteread would have given up art at the earliest opportunity I should think.

Your ds's crocodile chair sounds lovely, frogs.

Back from the book shop. Ds pleased with his last Bartimäus book. I hope he takes longer to read it than the last one, can't keep up.

Yes, dd is so artistic and loves making things but even she comes home with 3's and 4's from Werk und Textil (for a hand sewn Nikolaus stifel, a pottery pig and a wooden spatula).

I don't think ds's teacher is teaching them any special techniques in art either. I remember doing projects with a different technique for each one and the teacher would start off by showing us what he wanted and how we could do it. They just seem to be left to figure it out here. When my mum was over in January we sat and all painted together while he did his tree study and a few frames of what he wanted to do in his scene painting. Fat lot of good that did him, oh well suppose we did have a nice afternoon doing the preparatons!

aww poor little mini Frogs with her purple dog!

What are these books you're buying admylin? Never heard of Bartimäus.

Here ZZZen Bartimäus he's reading them in German.

lol at putting a purple dog in the picture! Would go down like a lead balloon here.

How did the reading thing go Nighbynight? Did they like the book your dd chose?

oh sorry I forgot to update. She didnt win! we had to go for a very large consolatory ice cream.

the strange thing was, that several children including dd read very well, and none of them won - we couldnt understand why the judges picked the winner they did!

the book was perfect though.

she is not going to make the uebertritt this year. she will probably get a recommendation to repeat teh 6th class in the RS, which would be very demoralising and humiliating, as she would then be in the same school as many of the "successful" ones who have already left, except that she would be in the year below them. We dont really know what she will choose to do. She still has headaches every day.

Am off to bed now, as ds (11) has just finished his homework.

NN, poor d, hope the ice cream helped somewhat. What choices do you have about schools? When I think of you and your children re schools it seems like something out of Kafka.

Art Frogs - do please post here, it's great to have your input.
S1 always loved art/basteln etc. Got to Y3 (oh do we see a pattern here?) and started getting 3s, 4s, 5s. Then had "stomach-ache" on Thursdays when they had double BTW. I went to see the teacher - think I was the first parent ever to do that and she unrolled this A3 sheet with all the marks. S1 had 1s and 2s for Kreativität, 3s, 4s for Ausführung.
He drew a snowman but the eyes were too small. A tree with too few branches.

Then the classic: "Ich weiss, es macht ihm Spaß und er ist doch sehr kreativ aber das deutsche Schulsystem bewertet die Kreativität nicht."

He had to do knitting and crotcheting which he found really hard because of his visual processing disorder which affects his fine motor skills. Got a 5, was humiliated as she was so scathing about his efforts. When I tried to help him I found out she'd showed them how to knit by standing in front of the class which made it harder esp for him sorting left hand/ right hand. I sat him on my lap and taught him and he got it.

When we got to crotcheting I just did the homework for him - made sure he knew the basics so she wouldn't suss. I help out in s2's Y4 BTW class sometimes and could tell a tale or two...
Fast forward to s1's secondary school, a great art teacher, in y5 he had mostly 1s, loved the day he had art & she became his favourite teacher and he started drawing again at home.

Postive report about s2's maths test - or rather his teacher.
He's terrified he'll get a 5 as it was the 5 on his report which makes him "versetzungsgefährdet" i.e. not go to secondary school but repeat Y4. I reassured him I'd read up on it (having more copies of the neue Grundschulordung than any parent needs) and as long as his marks don't get worse (i.e. a 5 in German or Sachunterricht) he'll be OK - but that doesn't make it easier for him, the tests are so stressful and they only have 3 Maths tests this half-year.

His teacher not only went over what he should learn with me but also:
sat next to him in the test and went over the 1st 4 questions with him to make sure he understood them.

Do you think our dc might be going through this sort of stress un UK? Why can't they see that it's wrong?

Anyway, I'm still waiting to find out what dd has to learn for her next maths test. I told her to ask the teacher which subjects the test would include but she forgot (bet more like she didn't get up the courage to ask) so I've told her to try again today. Only thing she knew was it'll be about money.

Nighbynight, what did your ds have to do for his homework last night?

Ds has finsihed his family tree project thing. He was fed up though because he said what's the point in putting in so much effort when the teacher won't even see it. He has this in German too, writes pages and pages, does every homework and it very rarely gets looked at. I just had to say we can't risk not doing it because the teacher might collect all the folders in to check when he writes his final grades.

Dunno admylin.
I don't think quite so much stress so young but then again I read stuff about SATs.
Def not about sodding art though.
This is why we need input from German expats in the UK and Uk'ers as well.
Our brains are swirling masses of indignation, frustration and sodding Adjektivendungen.

S2 is doing the Bundesjugendspiele today. Is the best boy gymnast in his class and is desperate to get to the Kreisentscheid. His teacher is a cow - and having seen her in the Gesamtkonferenz meetings with the other teachers, they think so too.
The head was surprised when I handed her a request for s2 to have 3 days off school to go to the "Internationales Deutsches Turnfest" in Frankfurt with the Turnverein as she had no idea he is so talented and she's a sports teacher herself. You'd think his teacher might have mentioned it, esp when they have the Zeugnis meetings.
The head was delighted and sought him out in his class and congratulated him in front of the others. Good for her.

So frustrating in the class though as he loves it and he's good at it and a bit of recognition from the teacher would do him the world of good. And if he's good enough to go to Frankfurt then he must be good enough for the (wee) Kreisentscheid but all she told him was, "If I decide to take you, you'll have to be better at the Reck." So encouraging

D got a round of applause from her class yesterday for being the 2nd child to finish the Leseheft. Came home 2 inches taller.

I can't wait to go round the iGS and the open day for ds's Gymnasium too. Dd keeps saying she would lik eto go to the Gymnasium if that's wheer her friends are going although some of her class will be trying for the IGS.

I'll wait and see which school atmosphere she likes - I mean she has seen ds's work from Gymnasium and I know there are alot of dc with even lower grades than ds but would she cope with getting such low grades all the time? She's a perfectionist.

Wow, well done to your ds finknottle. Has he been in a gym club for long?

really have no idea admylin, not having experienced a secondary school in D. At least having ds at the same school means you know what to expect which is something.

Agree finks definitely about NN and the Kafka touch.

dd is the complete opposite of your ds when it comes to gymnastics finks. Yahhh another success story on the thread

Keep em coming

Well, check this thread later today. Ds gets his results back for the German Klassenarbeit. He's not showing it but he'll be totally fed up if he gets a bad mark as he's going to try and get the money handed over for our trip home if it's good. Actually, he might as well forget it as even if he gets a 2 - which will be a miracle, that isn't classed as a good mark by h.

The other day he said dad will only be pleased with me when I've finished my PhD although, no he won't as he'll probably say it took me too long

I dunno admylin. He might even get JEALOUS and miffed when the dc have the same qualifications (or better) than he has.

There was a thread recently about AS level students, a mum asking how much homework or study the dc did and I was thinking, hang on a minute, these dc are doing A levels and sound like they have less to do than my 10 year old.

Dd is happy enough this week as it's project week. They'r edoing Paul Mar (DAs Sams) books. Her clas sis reading Lippels Traum. Quite a nice story really butthey are putting on a play too and dd anounced she'd been chosen to play the part of the Mülleimer and she hates it. I said it must be in the family, I was only a sheep in the nativity play!

think a Mülleimer is a step down from a sheep.

Is this a speaking role?

She reckons it is yes! The boy puts the skin off his warm milk in the bin but I have no idea what else happens! I told her to try and swap with someone ifshe hate sit too much.

Yuck at skin from warm milk and at Mülleimer being a speaking role.

Admylin, that's unbelievable about your poor s and your h. He has a totally different mindset, doesn't he? Would he buy the:
"The children have a much better chance of academic success in their native language so we're going back to the UK" tack? What you wrote about the secondary sounds great, you could ham it up about its excellent reputation, lucky to get in etc.

Cos, look ahead to Abitur, if your poor d and s are like this now about their dad, I pity them. Am on their behalf, and yours.

We have trouble at t'mill (school) today, have been just been called in and didn't leave till 11 last night and I now have to have to do the bloody minutes of the SEB mtg before I lose the will to live can no longer decipher my scrawl but will mail you and hatch cyber plans that you can hopefully use in rl.

Thanks finknottle, hatch away. I've already started talking about the school. My dad sent me the local town newspaper with my grans obituary in and on the front page was an article about the school being an elite gifted and talented programme school doing OU with gifted pupils or something - so, our dc are not G and T but he would like them to be so I read it out, it's just the sort of thing he'll remember. Must find an article about the science side which has also won nationwide prizes etc.