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.

I don't know what's wrong wtih the stupid thing, they have probably updated it again and the mailtool is now visible but I still can't use it.

Admylin, I would listen to what the teacher says and try to pick up on any problems. Thankfully (?) she will not beat around the bush the way a British teacher might so if she does say anything, I would leap in there with how happy he is/you are with this school and how much he prefers it to the previous school where the work was so below his level that it was frustrating and boring (ie. "he is UP to it"), I wouldn't mention "Versetzung" either, don't give her any ideas. And then like Finks says, you ask her what she recommends you doing about any difficulties she mentions at home.

You do not IMO want him abgestempelt as a Sorgenkind. Maybe try to be upbeat, positive and in control. Influences how they see him I think. Good luck

Agree, I'd also start by saying how he likes the school & mention something which is better there than in Berlin.
We ought to write a book for expats moving here on how to survive the school system...

Ok, I'm back from the meeting. The teacher didn't sound as if he was worried but he told me ds seems very unsicher and that all the subject teachers had also written the same thing in the Klassenbuch. He got a 4 in the last maths test and out of 33 dc he was 28th . Also he never puts his hand up and he looks very serious and worried. I didn't expect that.

I asked him what to do, how I could help and he said to talk about school with him, get him to explain what he's learning but I do that anyway. I've talked to ds already about it and he just shrugs it off. Not sure what to think. At one point the teacher mumbled vielleicht braucht er noch ein Jahr..but then he said that would be looked into at the end of year 5 so no sending down to Realschule after 6 months or anything.

Ds is oblivious to it though and is now happily playing on his nintendo on his bed. I think I'm going to have to take it away and try to get some more out of him.

Sounds like my s2, we're flummoxed & his teacher is flummoxed too...

Is it that he genuinely doesn't understand stuff? Or is hampered by the language, new situation and hasn't found his feet? That can lead to loss of confidence and that's a downward spiral as they sit there fretting about what they can't do/understand and get even less of it.
Or stops trying.

I think s2 does this but we haven't hit on a solution. He always seems happier when we've gone through stuff together but it's 1 step forward, 2 steps back with him.

I allow PC, PS2 and Nintendo acc to school marks, and this week clearing their room. It's the only thing that inspires my 2.

If you worry and fret and get het-up and cross (I did/do) it makes it worse. What worked for me was the more rational, "You haven't a choice, I haven't a choice, let's work on it, you try harder, I help you and we'll get it done and then have more time for things we like..."
1s in our house during particularly hard times have earned a DS game (if reduced!) Or the promise of some treat.

Y5 & Y6 are the Orientierungsstufe so no change to Realschule I think, what he may have meant would be repeating Y5 or 6, the decision to change only comes at the end of Y6. Afaik, that is the same Bundesweit.

Yes, I'm also worried it might be a language thing - the teacher showed me a test from geography and ds had written ost Hälfte and west Hälfte when it should have been östliche and westliche Hälfte - that's the sort of thing I wouldn't notice to be honest so I can't help him.

I think I'm going to start a limit on nintendo and PC too - that's a great idea with the new games for a 1(and the way things look it won't cost me a penny for quite a while!). Off to get tea finished and then talk to ds abit more. The school in Berlin never once told me he has problems with German but I think he does need help.

No, he definately understands the work, I'm sure of that - i think it's something else.

Just seen that they do send pupils down after the 1st half of the year. If the teacher didn't say, look he'll really have to pull up or... then I wouldn't panic yet.

Also tell (bribe) him to put his hand up if he can, that the teachers don't mind the low marks as much if they see the child is trying. He can start in the easier subjects. How's he doing in English?

In English I thought he would be fine but he has been getting minus points for spelling mistakes, silly little mistakes. He can speak it like a native but of course if he just sits quiet in class that won't help either. In the Berlin school he had class 6 books to practise gramar and was given books to read like Tom Sawyer.

I've told him he has to try and put his hand up and he said well what's the point, I won't get picked anyway. I just told him to still try so the teacher notices he always has his hand up.

Sorry to hear this admylin, but I wouldn't panic yet. I think it's still really early for your dc to have settled yet and they now have the uncertainty of another move hanging over them.

Shame really that teachers rarely seem to understand what it is like to move schools at that age. What struck me with dd in the first few months here was that many adults seem to take it personally when a child is withdrawn and doesn't make eye contact. There was one exception and that was dd's climbing teacher who said she'd moved around a lot as a child and just accepted the fact that dd was quite introverted. She didn't put any pressure on her to speak and as a result dd actually opened up to her quite quickly whereas it took her a lot longer at school.

The English spelling thing is annoying isn't it? I suspect we'll have the same thing when dd starts learning it next year.

I know, the teacher didn't show any reaction to what I was trying to tell him about ds being used to 15 dc in his class, 33 is a big difference and the moving about didn't sink in with him either. I also told him I would willingly get a student to help him in German. I get the same vibes from dd's school. They don't take things like that into account. She got a 4 in Werk und Textil when they had to make something with wood because in Berlin the school didn't have a werkraum with woodwork tables and tools so she was using them for the first time. The other dc had been in that room over the last few years so knew what to do. Dd obviously didn't finish her work on time but she wasn't given any extra help except from classmates.

Isn't it crazy to give marks for that at this age? Dd got a 4 last year for the same thing (tis called textiles Werken here) because she didn't finish what she was supposed to do - sewing a little bag. It's probably put her off sewing for life. Totally unecessary imo.

Your ds has had two major changes to deal with - the move from Grundschule to Gymnasium plus the move to Hannover. It's bound to take a while for him to feel comfortable again and I doubt that repeating a year would really help him. He sounds like a very bright boy who will find his feet again quickly especially if his teachers cut him a bit of slack at this stage.

Actually I'm kicking myself now for not stressing that point even more at the meeting. Teachers are meant to be intelligent people, it's fairly obvious why ds isn't 100% dabei yet.

You'd think so wouldn't you but none of dd's teachers really seemed to understand what she was going through.

Why are they so hard on dc here? I feel like preparing a speech in perfect German and phoning the teacher to tell him I've figured out what's wrong with ds - I won't do it but really feel like I should have stuck up for him more.

Could always write a note to the teacher, ad, that having thought it over...
We tried some confidence building with s2 as well last year, let him go to the youth club with his brother though he was a bit on the young side, let him cycle alone to friends more and he started badminton, which was great as all other sports he does with s1.
It's so easy to focus only on the school stuff, I found.

Mind you, he may have more confidence but not regarding school

Finknottle, which books did yoor ds use for year 5 in German and Maths? Were they just books with exercises in or with explanations too? This weekend I've had ds doing the akusativ, nominativ, etc and he's got a grammar test coming up with all the past and present tenses too. I just don't se emuch from his school work taht he can revise on. Do you think they teach it mündlich and teh dc are meant to take notes? Surely not at that age though?

Dd just wrote a lovely story for German homework but so many spelling mistakes. She always writes hate instead of hatte and forbei instead of vorbei - does that sound normal for year 4?

It's nearly 7pm and they've been at it all day (well I let them play 'til 11am as I was in bed) that's too much school work but it seams to be the only way to get them good grades.

I think your dd is just making transfer errors from English which comes from being bilingual and is going to pass with time if you keep gentling and with humour reminding her of them. Think that's enough.

With ds I wonder if he is gradually becoming aware of GIRLS, they seem to be starting puberty quite a bit earlier these days. Perhaps that is making him more self-conscious and quiet?

I also think you are all not very happy in your home admylin. Why not make this the Christmas where you go whole hog and decorate the place from top to bottom with wreaths and tinsel and angels and bake biscuits, mince pies, a Christmas cake the whole sheboodle?

Well, I'm back from picking dd up from school, ds should be back in about 20 minutes and then they will have to sit all afternoon and work. Seems wrong to me but what can I do about it? Can't beat the system can I.

ZZZen you are right that dd mixes up with translating! She always gets vorbei wrong and writes it with f but then she draws me pictures and writes vor mum on them , I suppose it must be confusing. I didn't have to worry about languages at that age.

just bake some biscuits and play a CD with CHirstmas carols, the cornier the better.

Do you know what, my mail tool is WORKING yippee yippee!!!!! So I will practice sending you both some of my speciality -garbled mails this evening.

I don't know what to advise about ds admylin because I just know what it is like with 1 dc. I don't know how you have to operate with 10 year old boys - what works with them. I just think there is a limit to how much you can go on stuffing their heads in a single day, you know?

These are so easy and they melt in your mouth. I don't make angels out of them though, just use normal flower, star, moon cutters:

300 g Mehl, 100g Puderzucker, salz, kl. Teelöffel Vanilla, 2 Eigelbe, 200g kühle Butter

Alle Teigzutaten verkneten. Teig in Folie wickeln und 30 Minuten kalt stellen. Anschließend auf einer bemehlten Arbeitsfläche ca 4mm dick ausrollen und ausstechen.

Kekse auf ein mit Backpapier belegtes Backblech setzen und im vorgeheizten Backhofen 180oC, Gas Stufe 3, ca 15 Minuten backen.

You can cut out angels and decorate them with icing but I never bother with that.

Yummy recipe - I'll be trying that later this week. Hope you don't mind a lurker popping in to say hallo. I'm following this thread with great interest although I don't live in a German-speaking country. I often deal with documents about the education systems in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, so am very interested to read about your experiences as parents.

Oooh no, I hope I didn't speak out of turn. I just wanted to say hello because I used to live in Germany (long before I had children though) and we were thinking of moving to Germany for work reasons a few years back. Feel bad for interrupting your thread now.