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Original poster

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:
ZZZen · 06/03/2009 18:15

Did the test go better than you expected admylin? How did dd find it?

admylin · 06/03/2009 23:12

ZZZen, the maths test is on Wednesday so we have time to practise, not that I have much hope. Couldn't do any today as after school she had 1 hour to rest abit then she was at the birthday party.

Tomorrow afternoon dd's friend (who is good at matsh) is coming round to play and to revise abit. I don't know if I should just leave them to it or give them some exercises to do, what do you reckon?

admylin · 07/03/2009 09:34

I have just found out from both my dc that alot of the dc in school have one of these lesepult which they set up on their desks!

ZZZen · 07/03/2009 09:57

don't know about those either way admylin. Just a fad I think. Still they're cheap so you could get them if the dc want them.

Sorry somehow oversaw when the test was. I think let the girls on with it alone but keep an eye on it in a low key manner so you see how the other girl revises and what effect it has on your dd. Might give you some tips on how to go about it

taipo · 09/03/2009 07:24

Both dd and ds have one of those. I'm not sure how much they actually use them but it was on the 100 page long list of things we had to get before they started school. Unbelievable how much money we had to spend before they'd even started.

admylin · 09/03/2009 07:56

Where did you get your dc's book stands taipo? My 2 didn't like the Amazon ones - ds would like a really plain one but not too bulky as his school bad weighs about the same as he does already. I liked the one that says Book, think it looks nice but they are obviously too over the top and brightly coloured for school!

taipo · 09/03/2009 08:41

I got them at a stationary shop in town. Dd's is pale blue metal with colourful letters on it and cost about 7 euros. Ds's was cheaper and plainer and less sturdy but I think it does the job.

I like the 'BOOK' one too. I would have thought that would be OK for school.

admylin · 09/03/2009 09:02

I'll have to have a look around. I keep saying we must go into the town centre but in the week the dc are so busy with their homework , a few days they don't even get in until after 3pm and at weekends the city is so packed and busy that I can't face it. Suppose there is no way around it, we'll have to get up earlier on Saterday and go.

Original poster
finknottle · 09/03/2009 09:14

Never even heard of those stands - apart from in the kitchen for cookery books. Thankfully as there's enough school stuff to buy, to get lost, to be replaced, to get lost again...

S2's class won't get the maths test back till tomorrow as 2 boys were off sick and are only doing it today. But........I grabbed his teacher in the school on Friday morning and said plaintively, "Please tell me s2 didn't get another 5 in the test!" No, he got a 3! A big improvement for him! She said she'd tell him so took him to one side, swore him to secrecy (can imagine the uproar if the girls knew that he'd been told his mark and they didn't know theirs) Big relief. She actually said his attitude has changed so much for the better since his report that according to the "verbale Leistungsbeurteilung" he's no longer versetzungsgefärdet. Even if his marks slide again to 5s he should be fine.

I wasn't having trouble at the school, btw, was just involved as there was another drama. Honestly, the children and the teachers are a doddle compared to some of the parents. Is it the Easter hols yet?

OP posts:
admylin · 09/03/2009 09:18

A 3 would be such a relief if dd can manage it. Well done to your ds. Did you revise a lot with him then? Any last minute tips? I think I've managed to get her to understand a couple of the trick questions where she would have messed up but still not everything.

Original poster
finknottle · 09/03/2009 09:29

No, apart from it's as much as them learning what the question is asking, but you know that.
Bloody hate it. I actually like maths but not the way they do it. Prob same in the UK though nowadays, am a hopeless traditionalist, want algorithms & quadratic equations and a set square and to wear a boater and write with a quill...

OP posts:
admylin · 09/03/2009 09:31

Lol, dd wants a quill...

We'll practise abit more tonight. The computer thing I bought for her is quite good so she can do that abit too - she couldn't at the weekend because I was - ahem, buy on the computer(watching Lark rise).

taipo · 09/03/2009 09:36

I don't know what you can do to revise other than go through more of the same kind of questions with her. Maybe not even do the whole question with her but just discuss how she would get to the answer iyswim? And then come back to the same questions later to see if she can still remember how to do it.

Then I would perhaps spend some time each day just practising times tables and mental arithmatic as I think the idea behind those problem solving questions is that you can work it out quickly in your head as well as writing down all the steps. Try to make it as fun as possible and perhaps in bursts of no more than 10 minutes.

Good for you ds, finknottle.

admylin · 09/03/2009 09:51

That's how I got her to understand a couple of the questions this time. Also ds explaining how he would do the sum helped. I must bribe him into helping outtonight too.

Ds spent most weekend studying German Märchen. There are a few that we didn't even know so well like Frau Holle, and Cinderella is abit different to my version. Anyway, the teacher gave them a really big crossword as an extra so he said he would do it but there was a question about the Wolf und die sieben geißlein - whe knew the story but in Englsih so I googled the question and found the crossword with answers proably where the teacher found it on an Austrian website! Yes, we cheated and filled it all in. It would have taken ages to figure alot of it out anyway, we read the fairy tales in Englsih when they were small - who knows Bämchen shüttel dich, Bäumchen rüttle dich, werf Gold und Silber über mich? (It's cinderella)

ZZZen · 09/03/2009 11:01

surprised that's secondary school work admylin. Thought they'd be more gung-ho than that. Also think some of the dc would baulk at having to deal with fairy stories at their age, or are they perhaps analysing them?

admylin · 09/03/2009 11:08

Well it looks as if they'r eteaching different style sof writing. They've done Berichte schreiben, befor ethat they did fantasy writing of own stories, now it's Märchen and next week the difference between Märchen and fables, then they go on to poetry (ds will be sick as ever as he hates poetry)

So ds got a 5 for the fantasy section (he wrote a really bad story and put slang words in it) and a 4 for his Bericht. Poor lad is really trying hard with the Märchen even though as you say, dealing with fairy storie sisn't really his cup of tea at his age.

Getthis: their version of Rumpelstilzkin, at the end when he doesn't get the baby because the queen guesses his name, he stamps his foot so hard that he tears himself in two - ds liked that part. My version is that he vanishes in a puff of smoke never to be seen again!

ZZZen · 09/03/2009 11:16

oh I see, looking into different styles, makes more sense.

taipo · 09/03/2009 11:24

I think fairy tales are a pretty important part of German literature so I can see why they would study them.

Also I should think the more gory original versions (as opposed to the sanitised English translations) would appeal to 10/11 year olds.

I was a bit though when the dc were younger and having these quite bloodthirsty stories read to them by dh.

admylin · 09/03/2009 19:45

I remember when I had gone through all the English books in the library I started on the German books and one of the first was about the lives of the Grimm brothers, which I enjoyed and i love the history of where the tales all come from.

ZZZen · 10/03/2009 16:26

I've been wondering what happened to that nice MNer who was somewhere overseas with her ds in a German school and was moving back to D. Remember she was asking about the schools? Did she ever get to Germany I wonder and how is it all working out. Do you remember her MN nick anyone? I'm hopeless at that but I remember the person IYKWIM

taipo · 10/03/2009 16:53

Oh I remember too. I can't remember her name but I think she was in the Far East somewhere, Singapore perhaps?

admylin · 10/03/2009 18:13

Yes, I remember but I think we scared her off [shame] we really shouldn't have told her to read the school thread.

I wonder where westvan is, she has older dc going through German state school too. She must just get on with it, I need to have a rant now and then though or I'd go mad!

admylin · 11/03/2009 07:49

Dd's maths test is today, infact she's sitting at it right now! She was unnaturally calm this morning. Either the revision payed off and she felt really sure of herself or she wasn't showing it but was nervous inside.

admylin · 11/03/2009 14:24

OK, dd said teh test was alright then she told me what she missed out - it doesn't sound too good and probably heading for a 4 or a 3 if she got all teh ones she did fill in correct.

Ds just cam ein, he has school from 8am to 3pm on Wednesday and Thursday. He said mum I hate Wednesdays, oh I also hate Thursdays and Friday too. So I said what about Monday and Tuesday, you like those days then? He said no I only like 2 days of the week when I don't hav eto go to school. We need motivation therapy or something I think.

westvan · 11/03/2009 15:42

Hi, hi! I've been reading along but haven't had the energy to post lately. Various health problems keeping me down.

My kids are in 7th and 10th class now and I really don't get too excited about it anymore since there's no use fighting the German system. Both of our boys are very, very quiet in school (NOT at home) and this is detremental for their grades because in Germany it seems like the kid with the biggest mouth wins. We do encourage them to talk more in class and participate even if they feel they don't know the answers and sometimes it works. Their grades are average, could be MUCH better, but when we go to parent-teacher conferences, the teachers say everything is just fine and that they see not problems other than the lack of class participation.