Information Day for Future 5th Graders: Dive into Life at Steinmühle!
There wasn’t a single empty seat left in the auditorium, and many had to stand as the Steinmühlen school administration welcomed interested students who will soon be graduating from elementary school and moving on to middle school. “Let’s see if what your parents were told at the information night comes to life today,” said Principal Bernd Holly, encouraging all the girls, boys, and their parents to join the upcoming tour of the Steinmühlen campus. It was Information Day for the future 5th-grade classes. And that meant: Dive right into the Steinmühle experience!
Feel the atmosphere
The 6th-grade wind ensemble had already kicked off the event with a musical performance. A little later, visitors could meet the musicians up close in the music room. “If you’re interested in learning to play a brass instrument, this is the perfect place for you,” explained music teacher Ulrike Wilmsmeyer. Visitors were amazed by the sounds the clarinet, flute, and other instruments produced that morning.
Teacher Sigrid Stechmann waited at the Centrum along with students from grades 5 and 6 to welcome interested visitors. At Steinmühle, this location is known as “Campus 1”; that’s where grades 5 and 6 study—with a library under the same roof.
A lot of people were in the mood for Bock
Things were lively in the gym next door. With support from the upper school’s advanced physical education class, led by Elke Buurman, students were able to work out on ropes, the vaulting horse, the parallel bars, and at the ping-pong tables.
“Who has ever tried pottery?” Brigitte Schmitz asked in the workshop, and many hands went up. Practical skills were in demand here, which showed that this activity is also offered as an extracurricular club at Steinmühle, just like the mosaic club.
The School Parents’ Council Executive Board held a Q&A session in the new cafeteria on Campus 2, where they answered questions from interested parents who wanted to explore the topics of parental involvement, the right to have a say, and the atmosphere at Steinmühle. The dedicated members of the Steinmühle Parents’ Council were also able to convince the few skeptics among the many parents in attendance that the council acts completely independently and without outside influence—even during this question-and-answer session—and that parental involvement is not mandatory but is certainly welcome.
Science in Real Life
In the newly renovated physics classrooms, Constanze Oestreicher-Gold, head of the mathematics and science department at Steinmühle, joined students in presenting impressive examples of the science lessons taught at Steinmühle in grades 5 and 6. The curriculum addresses real-life science questions related to the topics of water, fire, life, light, air, and materials in everyday life.
All interested students were guided through the various stations in a total of five groups. They were accompanied by Upper School Director Elke Karasek, Academic Director Frank Wemme, guidance counselor Dirk Lange (who is also responsible for quality management at Steinmühle), and either Principal Bernd Holly or Principal Björn Gemmer. In the new “Atrium” building, Gemmer explained how lessons are conducted using the interactive whiteboards. “We basically have a large tablet on the wall with a Windows interface.” The guests would encounter these boards again in several other rooms. After all, green chalkboards at Steinmühle—that’s a thing of the past.
