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.

tbh, I think they have too high expectations of teh children. Primary school children really shouldnt have to remember a different timetable on different days of the week, and write homework down, take the correct books home etc. we didn't have to do that until 2ndary school, imo that is when we were ready to manage it.

that is why montessori primaries are so popular round here, but awful for the children when they need to be prepared for the big gymnasium/realschule exam, which lasts for 3 days.

It is good to get other parents views. The other day I asked a dad about his dd who goes to a different Gymnasium how her grades were and he said not very good at all but that when he was at Gymnasium he also had bad grades in year 6 and 7 and that's just how they do things here. Then in year 7 they usually get better again.

Seems to be the standard way of doing things. Good grades in primary school, then shock them into working harder by really marking down when infact the work isn't that much harder, it's the marking that has got more anspruchsvoll.

Admylin, was on the PTA stand at the C'mas market at the w/end & saw loads of parents I know from primary whose children are now at Gymn. Consensus is that 3s and the occ 2 or 4 are the norm atm. One boy is v academically bright, 1s all the way though primary and even he's getting 2s and 3s.

Can't wait for the hols, it's madly busy on the school front here, every day lately something happens, rather a baptism of fire tbh.

The Empfehlung meetings have started here, de de de dum. Thankfully I'm planning the class C'mas party with s2's teacher and we get on really well so at least I don't have to dread it like with s1.

One of s1's teachers (not his Klassenlehrerin) mentioned to him he won't get into Gymnasium if his handwriting doesn't improve so they're obviously still talking about that as a possibility. Wouldn't send him in a million years but am still dead chuffed for him. Just wish the IGS had started one year earlier cos he could have just switched classes for Y7 and gone into the Gym stream.

Occurs to me that so far we're doing really well with all 3 teachers. I found out what had been going behind the scenes with s2's class and why his teacher was so stressed a while ago. Things are a lot calmer these days.
Roll on the hols.

Finks, you are doing alot of work as Eltervetreter. Did they note vote a 2nd in to help out? I enjoyed being Elternsprecher in Berlin because I got to understand how teh school works and that the headmisstress was working hard but she didn't have the 100% support from her staff. I'd say she only had about a third of them really with her.

The English teacher rang today and I remembered your wise words and I praised her for her hard work etc...not sure if I went over board or not but I hope it was OK. When ds came home I told him I'd spokedn to her and that I'd done a bucket full of sucking up too and asked him please not to put me in that position again because I hate sucking up! The teacher did say that she's noticed he has been really joining in and making more effort so that sounds positive. Christmas Lesefest with Plätzchen in the classroom tomorrow.

well let us know if you have to kiss her ring, won't you?!

Well done swallowing your pride, I hate kow-towing to the powers that be (or those who think that is who they are). Just can't do it but no doubt it's time we all learnt!

I think 4x ZZZen = 1 finks.
Or maybe = 1/2 finks.

She seems to be doing a lot

I'm seriously thinking of offering to help ds's classmates with reading. They have 50% oral grades too so the more they practise the better. Actually might offer round some of the nicer parents rather than to the teacher and see if they want to do a swap with German for ds - just having a German next to him when he does the homework would help. I can never tell if he has to correct any endings.

yes those German endings are a minefield. When you speak you can just sort of swallow the endings, let your voice fade at the end and then rush onto the next word and it doesn't really get notice that much. Written work shows up all the uncertainties though.

We've been revising Geography for the test on Thursday. I can't get ds to sit and learn by himself. I keep telling him to try different methods but he doesn't know how. I used to learn by reading the work I had done and then making lists with little sub titles and notes then I would learn from the lists. Ds doesn't like that method, not impressed at all.

I think the Germans are really inot those Karteikarten. I never got the hang of them but the idea is they write information on one side and some small thing like a question on the other. THen keep going through them till they have all the answers. When they can do a card, they move it back one step in the box and so on till all the cards have reached the back.

My brain stalled somewhere along the procedure of just grasping it. Never put it into practice.#

I didn't have any stuff like that to learn off by heart at 10 tbh

No same here , apart from times tables we didn't either. The only thing we used to get was spellings, 20 a week and then French vocab of course but the rest just seemed to sink in anyway. I think they teach wrongly here , how come our teachers managed to teach us so much without us having to go through it every night and do homework?

Good news, dd got a 2 in Aufsatz test - one test where spellings were not taken into account! And when did we miss them teaching when to use full stops and commas? She doesn't seem to be able to do that but still got a 2 so not complaining.

yah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!well done dd

just noticed the Christmas smileys are here.

It is good news because on wednesday I have the dreaded Empfehlung meeting with 2 teachers at dd's school. I'm going to tell them I would have rather had this meeting with dd's old teacher who knew her for 2 years non-stop. Just so I can indirectly sort of tell them that I know that they don't really know dd - then I'll wait and see what they want to say.

dunno if I'd start like that. They are all so touchy, might feel criticised

Don't you think. I think the sucking up track might be the way to go but they will have made their minds up in advance what to say, won't they?

I know but I get to decide where to send her so I don't much see the point in the meeting - here in Niedersachsen it's the parents who decide regardless of the Empfehlung so I thought I wouldn't have to be too nice. Although I had planned to say how great the school is and what wonderful things they do with the dc etc becaus ethey do.

Wednesday this week?

Yes at 16 Uhr.

well I really don't know for sure how to handle these people (as you well know) waiting with baited breath for finks' 15 Band Kompendium "How to work the German school system".

How about sounding very calm and definite : we will be sending dd to such-and-such gymnasium. Her brother already attends the school and we're very happy with it and confident she'll do well there.

And basta.

I'm going to tel lthem that dd wants to go to such and such a Gymnasium because she does! I don't want them to think we're pushing her ...although... do you think pushy parents come across as good parents here?

I'm not sure they care that much whether you are a "good", pushy parent or whatever. I don't know but my guess is they are really (unless there is a strong antipathy there or soemthing clouding the issue) thinking about whether the dc has the style of learning, approach to school that will suit Gymnasium or not, just on the basis of what they see in class.

After all they will have been through the gymnasium set-up themselves so they know what it will be like.

Hope it goes well. So hard not to worry and be stressed out by this kind of thing, isn't it? DO the dc find out which recommendation they have been given if the dp don't mention it?

Admylin, let the teacher spout off. Would advise "Listen, Nod, Commit to Nothing".

We had a "Listen, Nod, Commit to Nothing" strategy for s1's Empfehlungsgespräch.
4 seconds in the head and h were at each other's throats but I would still recommend it as a strategy...

It's not going to bind you to anything. What's emphasised here is not only the Noten but the Lernverhalten. There's a difference between getting 3s and 2s - and being overwhelmed and always struggling to keep up despite plugging away.

Mentioning how good you think x y z at the school would be good for leading onto how important you know it is that the child is in a good learning environment for that child.

I wouldn't start by saying d wants to go to X Gymnasium, tbh. Aware of strengths and weaknesses & what can we do to help... is prob better than 'pushy'.

Your d has had a lot of settling in to do so you can use that too of course. There's a lot of time between now and next autumn.

Good luck old chap. Debriefing in the hut later.
Sorry, been reading about WWII fighter pilots.

Meanwhile my s2 goes from worse to worser to worsest. Sigh. Must shower, am off to help with Christmas play thing.

Zzzen, the vice chair is v nice & we get on v well but he doesn't really have to do anything. He works full-time as well and I've found I've been more involved simply because I'm there a lot (lately doing Christmas stuff for d's class or s2's) and so have been in the thick of things rather than being informed by email afterwards. Think it's definitely an advantage being able to pop down in the mornings. Have an ally in the (potty) secretary, she's wonderfully indiscreet.

Good luck admylin!

Morning. I'm going to try and smile and nod alot then this afternoon. I will be taking dd's 3rd year reports in as I know for a fact that the uselss secretary in Berlin has not forwarded them to Hannover. Atleast they will see her good report too.

What's going on with your ds2? I've used your trick about a new nintendo game for every grade 1 with my ds and he seems to be trying harder. Poor soul, it's practically impossible to get a 1 in year 5 at this school. Spoke to quite a few parents last night at the Lesefest and it seems to be the same all round. The German teacher is in trouble with the Elternvetreter as he did a dictation - ungeübt - which he says is allowed in year 5, the parents say it has to be a dictation they have practised for. He might have to re-do it as they all got bad marks. One mother is trying to find out what the rule is (must be set rules some where)

Maybe it's my cultural baggage but I still don't see the point in dictation. I feel they should be writing and writing freely at this stage and gleaning their knowledge of grammar, punctation etc from readign and reading good material.

ANYWAY....

What is going on with ds now finks?

Good luck admylin. Are you nervous? Would it be good to finish with something noncommital like: "Wir müssen uns zuerst mit der Schullandschaft Hannovers gründlich vertraut machen, bevor wir eine Entscheidung über eine weiterführende Schule für dd machen."(just not saying anything really but sounding very serious about the whole thing). I find they're into that.

OK finks you said 'Good luck old chap. Debriefing in the hut later', well I vote we surrender or go AOL or something, we can't win this war.

admylin, sorry it doesnt sound good.

I was speaking to one of my colleagues today, who is an engineering contractor earning around 60 euros/hour, he is under 30.

His teacher recommended the Hauptschule, his parents insisted on the RS, then he did the transfer to do Abitur and went to uni.

Can you just insist?