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.

aaaarrrrggghhhhh, between the 2 of you yu've given me the exact reasons I was thinking NOT to do it, plus the reason why I should do it. So 2 steps forward - and 2 steps back.

There are a few different summer activities on, so i suppose I could just sign them up for them. I'll try to discuss it again with the schoolamt woman.

how do I work out for sure which class ds1 and 2 should be in, as opposd to which one I could put him in? Ds1, birthday August '99. In September in UK he should be in Year 6 I think. He is in grade 3 now, should be grade 4, but we put him in 1 below for many reasons. Ds2 is Jan '01.

seems to depend a bit on the state. dd was born a year after your ds (almost exactly a year after) and she was in the 2. Klasse last year, so this year 3. Klasse, most were born 2000 like dd, some 2001. Admylin said in her dd's class and she was born Sept 1999 her dd (this year 4. Klasse) was one of the youngest. So no idea how they work it. The difficulty is the year my dd started, they had brought the school starting age forward from 7 to 6 and dd was not quite 6 at the time. That's why 1999/2000 is a bit mixed up.

I should think he would be going into the 5. Klasse in September. What did the school say?

I think we should start a new German school thread in your honour ernest.

I think ZZZen's right, it seems to depend where you live. If he were at a school in BW he would probably be in the 4. Klasse now but one of the youngest. It's quite flexible though. If he went into 5. Klasse in September how would they decide which school he should go to?

oh yes didn't think of that taipo. Ernest if he is year 5 in Bavaria, the children have been assessed and streamed in year 4 and given a recommendation for the type of secondary (ability-based) they can apply to. The dp have will all be applying now for Gymnasium etc.

Year 5 in Bavaria will be the first year of secondary, so how will they know which of the 3 types of secondary to send him to? Which school have they allocated him, do you know? We can check out the website. In Berlin secondary begins with year 7, with the exception of a handful of Gymnasia (mostly the classical Latin-Greek type)

There's also the Gesamtschule which includes children of all abilities learning together. Perhaps he is down for the local secondary Gesamtschule then taipo? Otherwise I agree, how will they have assessed him?

Only other thing I can think of is they have him down for year 4 (final year primary) so he can be assessed there next year.

Hi Taipo,

I'm guessing if he were to go into the 5th class in September, we'd get the say so, and they'd give him a trial period. But we definately won't be doing that. It will be 4th class, assuming he's not the very youngest in the year - this is what I'm trying to get my head round. In UK being born late August, he is pretty much the youngest in his year, but they are so inflexible. Here at least we get to say which class we wish him to start in, - I just can't work out what that class is . So if he were in 4th class right now, he'd be one of the youngest, so presumably starting in 4th class in September will make him one of the oldest in the class, is that right?

Ernest, don't know if this helps but dd is October 99 and is in year 4 now but I got her eingeschult a year early so she should realyl be in year 3 now, going into year 4 in September soyour ds1 should be OK in Bayern in year 3 now - if you moved him now, and going into year 4 in September. It'll be a tough year or more like half year because they satrt assessing them from the first week for the Empfehlung and they need to get good grades in maths and German (a 1 or a 2) and then one other subject like Sachkunde needs to be above a 3 . That's what you'll have to aim for to get him into a good secondary school.

We need NighbyNight on here, she has been through it all with her dc in Bavaria so she could give you some tips. I know she has teachers for after school for them to help with homework.

This is what makes it all so confusing and admylin's dd and mine were in the same state but with the change they brought it, that's a bit messed up. For instance her dd born Sept 1999 was in year 4 this year aged 9 going on 10. Mine born Sept 2000 would have been year 3 aged 8 going on 9. Her dd was one of the youngest in her year, going on the old starting date; my dd was not, they were all 8 going on 9 or 7 going on 8. So had her dd moved down a class and been with my dd , she would have been by far the oldest in the class.

Kind of odd, what heppened to the inbetween ones?

I think your school will have the say and you will pretty much have to go along with their judgement. At least in Germany there is a lot more flexibility in that dc can repeat a year if they are not managing (whehter or not you actually like that) and they can be moved up a year if it is all too easy. I wondered worry too much about the age thing, he can be moved if it isn't a good fit.

The only awkward thing is being moved up a year, means being moved into secondary

It's also mixed up because by the old sytem (pre 2000) you began school if you were 6 by August I think. Now you begin school if you'll be 6 by teh end of that year. So my dd was in fact still 5 (but only a few weeks off turning 6). So had they not changed the system that year, she would have been eingeschult 2001

oh drat. I meant she was eingeschult 2006 being born 2000 whereas had they not changed the system it would have been 2007 for her (just a few weeks before her 7th birthday)

It all sounds awfully muddled I know. The school will put him in year 4 then and I assume since this would be my dd's class next year if shew ere still in the system. She would be not quite 9 when the school year begins and most will turn 10 in the space of that school year. He would therefore probably be the oldest but if it was not right, you would have to speak to the teacher and maybe try approaching a secondary to see if they would let him in for year 5 on the probationary 6 month thing they have.

Shouldn't be too drastic a problem whatever the situation is. Just try it I think

looks like I have a stutter

I really should not be rambling on this thread confusing ernest

bythe sounds of things, Finks is totally run off her feet, practically single-handedly running 3 schools - or that's what it sounded like. Made me think I should be doing a lotmore with my life

Whatever happens I hope Ernest's dc settle and enjoy the experience. Best thing is, if they do hate it and are unhappy then she will still have that option to go back to UK.

I'm thinking I know what I'm saying, yet even I can't understand my own posts on that school starting age

Sollen wir Ernest a new thread schenken admylin out of the kindness of our hearts? Hope it goes well for her and the boys.

should I entitle it: enter at your peril or is that too optimistic sounding?

Yes, it would be a good Abschied for me too as a poster who participates with moaning and problems on this thread and as an observer just giving meine Meinung on the new one!

OMG scarey!

or maybe das Ende der Kindheit?

Gimme a title

No, you can't do that. Poor Ernest, it has to be something more positive sounding like Gemeinsam scaffen wir es.

that's positive?! sounds likethe captain on the Titanic.

Might be about right

können wir es schaffen? yo das können wir!

German school - dass schaffen wir mit links

Maybe that sounds abit too positive!

shame you can't write the thread title in German Schreibschrift

I did it. I was very brav. I was going to write HINSETZEN!! on the thread title but you will be proud of me and my show of restraint

Good morning. It's pissing down. As it has been for the last forever or so.

Just wanted to say my boys moved into german school last monday. So far it has gone brilliantly. They seem to have made good progress with making friends. Someone calls for them every morning. We've lived here for just over a year, and the boys have been so sad not having any frinênds (well at school yes, but it's so far away. SO they've gone to school at 8, returned at 5 then been all alone).

Now 2 kids call round at 7.40, they all go off together, 5 minutes round the corner. They decided they wanted to go to the Hort - they could choose bwn Hort & Mittagsbetreuung and they chose Hort, so they have lunch their, then homeowrk help, then play. Honestly it's been great. Only thing I'm not hapy about really is the Head teacher, but hopefully, I can work round that.

I'm meeting with ds1 class teacher today. ds1 is in 3rd class & ds2 is in 2nd class. I want to establish with class teacher today what the score is with ds1 next year. I have been told that the fact he's nex to german school, and has german as 2nd langauge will be taken into account when decided on secondary school, but then the Head told me he would not take it into consideration and that ds1 would be judged exactly the same as all other pupils. Does anyone know about this? I know for a fact that foreign kids moving into Gymnasium are given a few months period of grace - Probezeit - before they are judged same as German kids, so it would seem weird that younger kids are treted tougher...?

I'm also going to try to organise Nachhilfe. Any other tips or suggestions for discussion with class teacher today?

Ta