2,000 € – Donation for Ugandan war orphans

It wasn’t the first time that Ms. Kvachko’s Class 8b had held a fundraiser at the Fall Festival for the St. Francis Orphanage in Rakai carried out. Even when they presented the first donation to Mr. Komm and Mr. Hedwig in March 2015, the students solemnly promised: “We’ll keep collecting!”

At this first meeting, representatives of the Rakai Initiative reported on the war orphans project in Uganda, which has been operating since October 2010 as the St. Francis Rakai Initiative e.V. and provides care and education to approximately 400 children. With just 3 euros, a child can be fed for a month. The St. Francis Home was founded in 1988 on the initiative of the late Mr. and Mrs. Katende. In Marburg, the initiative is being carried on by Thomas Komm, who served as head of the Office of International Relations at Philipps University of Marburg until 2008, and Armin Hedwig, who taught at the Stiftsschule in Amöneburg near Marburg.

By now, the students understand just how much their donations are needed. They have learned about Uganda’s history and the projects of the St. Francis Rakai Initiative. They are aware of the daily realities and unique challenges of life in crisis-stricken Uganda. They fully understand that war orphans, above all, need support.

The class achieved an extraordinary fundraising success at the 2016 Fall Festival: They raised 640 € through food sales and other activities, and the school’s Interact Club contributed an additional 110 € from its own fundraising efforts. Impressed by the students’ dedication, our school association chairman, Egon Vaupel, visited a family in Marburg known for their generosity, who were willing to match the amount of 1,250 € to bring the total to 2,000 €.

An overall encouraging result!

On December 12, the lower school held its Advent afternoon—Grade 5 in the Forum and Grade 6 in the Centrum.

The 5th-grade classes gathered around the Christmas tree in the Forum. The large crowd of parents, siblings, and grandparents in attendance listened to the first results of the wind ensemble’s work under the direction of Ulrike Wilmsmeyer, and the various instrumental groups performed Christmas classics and other pieces, such as “Au clair de la lune.”

The 5th-grade choir, directed by Daniel Sans, also performed the first results of their musical efforts, including an autumn song, a piece from the musical “Am Himmel geht ein Fenster auf,” and, to conclude, a rousing rendition of “Ehre sei Gott.”

After more stage performances—including the English sketch “Crazy Christmas” by Class 5a and Christmas-themed texts from the GuFi language workshop—the celebration moved on to its interactive portion, with students participating in arts-and-crafts and puzzle-solving activities in various groups. Students led the game and craft groups on their own. Finally, Class 5b performed their self-choreographed class dance.

With the active support of the parents, the traditional Advent craft afternoon for 6th-grade classes at the Centrum was a success, much to the delight of everyone involved. The brass band class provided a spirited opening performance, after which students could make their own Christmas decorations—including ones made from peanuts, custom candle arrangements, Fröbel stars, Soma cubes, and scented oranges for the Christmas tree—as well as an Advent wreath made from cubes and napkins. Anyone who wanted to could have their own Christmas photo taken in the photo studio. In the atrium, the Advent picnic baskets were generously stocked, and there was plenty of time and leisure for chatting and socializing. A heartfelt thank you for the wonderful support to Ms. Schwing, Ms. Steinfeldt, Ms. Arweiler, Ms. Frederix, Ms. Sautter-Müller, and Ms. Schaefer!

It was a stroke of luck right from the start that we were able to secure Annemarie von der Groeben as a speaker for the first morning of our in-school professional development session. The former Director of Instruction at the Laborschule Bielefeld—who is also a co-founder of the “Blick über den Zaun” school network and remains an “education expert” active in a wide range of contexts to this day, continues to pursue her “life’s work”—ensuring successful academic learning for all children—with undiminished vigor, despite her retirement. As a result, the faculty was able to receive and incorporate valuable insights, and the response to and acceptance of the presentation were exceptionally high. According to a survey conducted in June 2015, the topic “Open-Classroom Teaching and Interest-Based Teaching” On the agenda: How can we design tasks to offer intelligent choices while keeping key skills to be acquired in mind? How can we reconcile the academic standards of high school with the diverse desire for self-determination among children and adolescents? How can we help children recognize their strengths and avoid discouraging them? These were the kinds of questions addressed in a mix of lectures and short workshop sessions.

As part of the journey toward becoming a “Health-Promoting School,” there were also two phases this year in the area of “Physical Activity in the Classroom”. In a presentation on Tuesday, November 22, Martin Dürr shared a variety of ideas and routines that have long been part of daily life at the Gymnasium am Mosbacher Berg in Wiesbaden. It was wonderful to see that, with the indoor recess (grades 5–8) during the cold season, we are already well on our way in this regard.