Winter Clubs: Steinmühle Boarding School Handles Challenges with Ease

Striking a balance between academic workload and extracurricular activities is a key factor in students’ success. This is why Steinmühle Boarding School places such a strong emphasis on offering high-quality and varied educational recreational programs. Tailored to the seasons, a different program is offered twice a year. The goal is to consciously experience leisure time—whether through physical activity or learning—together with others, rather than passively engaging in it in isolation.

Winter has always naturally presented the greatest challenges: gloomy weather, lethargy, limited outdoor activities, and early darkness. It’s easy to imagine that this year is particularly difficult. The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences are an additional obstacle we must contend with.

A successful concept is no accident

Nevertheless, the educational team has once again managed to put together a varied program. It takes safety considerations into account while still leaving room for students to experience a sense of self-efficacy and personal growth. It is no coincidence that the program is authentic and tailored to the boarding school student body. In the run-up to the program, educators aligned their ideas and possibilities with the students’ needs.

As many as 20 students want to learn to dance

The requests vary widely: Several students expressed a desire for a new pool table for cozy game nights, and as many as 20 students expressed interest in a dance club. Together with a professional dance instructor, the teaching staff has therefore organized dance activities that comply with COVID-19 guidelines to make learning standard dances as accessible as possible.

At first glance, creating a LEGO room might sound like a request tailored exclusively to the younger boarding school students. But that’s not the case, because while the younger students let their creativity run wild there during the day, the older students can use the space as a chill-out room in the evenings—and, of course, they’re also welcome to get creative with Lego.

“Exercise for Everyone” is the name of a new extracurricular activity format currently being piloted. A wide range of activities, created anew each week by several educators, serves as a pool of options for students at the Steinmühle boarding school. One of the activities becomes mandatory, while others can be chosen flexibly, depending on the students’ personal schedules. In the event of exams or illness, everyone can adjust their activities accordingly.

With this type of program, Steinmühle Boarding School aims to accommodate the individual students’ lifestyles and the increased demands placed on them, in order to learn from this experience and draw conclusions for the next cycle. “We are in a phase where we are taking a respectful yet critical look at our existing structures to see whether this increased level of flexibility helps students tailor their weekly schedules to better meet their needs,” says Patric Hahn, who is responsible for recreational educational programs at Steinmühle Boarding School.

Upcycling: Giving Old Shirts a New Life

In addition to these areas, which aren’t covered in the curriculum, the teaching team also draws on tried-and-true activities from the range of extracurricular clubs. These include classics such as badminton, soccer, basketball, jumping fitness, digital drawing, and hand lettering, as well as seasonal activities like lantern-making, guided fall walks, and learning cafés. Even though “traditional games” are currently being avoided in team sports, the focus is on technique and individual training.

Mainly on weekends, students also have the opportunity—with organizational support from teachers—to try new things in a safe environment and create their own activities. A great example is one student’s idea to repurpose old T-shirts.

Tax Returns & More: Tips for Later in Life

In addition to this structural change, a completely new topic area has been added to the range of extracurricular group offerings: Life Skills. The goal here is to provide answers to questions that arise after finishing school—questions that young people have often been able to address only with a shrug: How do I apply to college? What is a tax return, and how do I file one? How do I get insurance, and what kinds of insurance do I need? “This club is about preparing young people for life beyond their time at Steinmühle,” says club leader Nils Schwandt.

The combination of established programs and new formats tailored to the circumstances thus contributes to an increased sense of well-being for everyone involved in boarding school life—despite all the challenges!