After a long and successful tenure, the board of the school association had announced its retirement. The chairman, Dr. Gerhard Pätzold, had steered the school’s fortunes for 38 years with a steady hand and great dedication. For many years, he did so alongside the vice-chairman, Mr. Dieter Jöllenbeck, who had introduced the all-day school program at Steinmühle as its principal in the 1970s and served for many years as director of the Marburg State School Board.

On December 7, 2015, the general meeting elected the new board of directors. Mr. Egon Vaupel was elected chairman. Mr. Vaupel served as mayor of the city of Marburg for eight years and as mayor for ten years. Mr. Gerhard Müller was elected as his deputy; he is very familiar with the Steinmühle, having held various positions on the school’s administration board there until 1995.

The school community welcomes the new leadership and, together with the two newly elected officials, hopes for continued success and smooth sailing.

With its elective model, Steinmühle is the only school in the Marburg-Biedenkopf district to offer both the G9 and G8 tracks. A key feature of the model is the flexible 10th grade for G9 students, which will be implemented for the first time in the 2016–17 school year. We plan to organize this flexible 10th grade into four classes instead of three in order to create capacity for students from other schools. Below, we’ll introduce you to this special grade level:

The period from the 2016 summer break to the 2017 Easter break …

… regular subject instruction takes place in nearly all academic subjects. The content specified by the Hessian curriculum is taught in the traditional Steinmühlen style—which is highly collaborative and promotes self-efficacy among our students. Most classes are held with the entire class; the second foreign language, religion and ethics, the arts subject, elective courses, and bilingual instruction are, as before, organized into parallel courses based on student selection.

From the 2017 Easter break through the 2017 summer break …

… the students can choose between:

1. a stay abroad (language course or exchange program),
2. a social or professional internship,
3. or a class at the Steinmühle on the topic “Ready for High School.”

Re: a) Stay Abroad

Steinmühle has established partnerships with well-known and established providers of language travel programs and youth exchange programs. In addition to language acquisition, the goal of these stays abroad is always to strengthen personal skills such as self-confidence, independence, communication skills, and perseverance. If you are interested, please consult with Principal Björn Gemmer.

Re: b) Internship

School-based internships (social internship in 8th grade, workplace internship in 9th grade) are often considered too short to provide a genuine insight into a career field. With a timeframe of three to four months, however, the situation is different. Over this period, interns can refine or rule out their career aspirations, become valuable contributors to a company, and set the stage for long-term employment as summer workers or participants in a dual study program. Since this program requires a long-term leave of absence from classes, it must be closely coordinated with the school administration.

Regarding c) “Ready for High School”

The “Ready for High School” course involves small learning groups and focuses on reviewing key material from middle school—especially in those subjects where the pressure to advance is greatest, that is, in the core subjects, the natural sciences, and in elective subjects that cannot be dropped or are frequently chosen as exam subjects for the Abitur. In this way, we aim to ease the transition into the upper secondary level of the Gymnasium and lay a solid foundation for the most successful Abitur possible.

Students in our current 9a, 9b, and 9c classes will have the opportunity to transfer to the new 10d class. This would allow them to be part of an even smaller class than before and receive even more personalized academic support.

We welcome students from other schools! Students currently in the ninth grade at a G8 high school are welcome to join our flexible 10th-grade class and thus transition to the G9 system. Students in ninth grade at comprehensive schools may also transfer to Steinmühle (provided they meet the academic requirements for a Gymnasium). They should contact us and schedule an introductory meeting to consult with one of Steinmühle’s two principals.

After the tenth grade, all students who are promoted to the 11th grade are granted equivalence to the intermediate school diploma (Realschulabschluss).

Students continue their academic journey in the introductory phase (11th grade) of our specialized upper school program. You can find more information on our website, request brochures from the school office, or learn more about the specialized upper school program and the wide range of advanced courses (including sports and art) during a personal consultation.

Last year, 141 students and 2 teachers met the requirements for the “German Sports Badge.”

Anyone who wants to earn this badge of honor must earn points in the following categories:
1. Demonstrate swimming ability
2. Endurance: e.g., 800m/3000m run
3. Strength: e.g., ball throw, shot put, standing long jump
4. Speed: e.g., 50m or 100m run, 25m swim
5. Coordination: e.g., long jump, high jump, Schleuderball

Depending on performance, each category is awarded 1, 2, or 3 points.
If you score 2–5 in the four categories—for a total of 4–7 points—you receive the bronze sports badge; for 8–10 points, you receive the silver badge; and for 11 or 12 points, you receive the highest award, the gold badge.

In 2015, 26 bronze, 70 silver, and 48 gold badges were awarded at Steinmühle—a truly remarkable achievement! Particularly noteworthy is the achievement of Mr. Schubert, who succeeded for the seventh consecutive year and earned the gold sports badge in each of the past three rounds.

Congratulations!

This year’s Steinmühlen Soccer Tournament was held for the first time under a new format. The seven participating teams—comprising students from the day school (grades 8–12) and teachers, as well as students from the boarding school and their counselors—were grouped together by random draw before the tournament began. As a result, the field of participants was much more balanced than in previous years.

In a friendly and fair atmosphere, the games were played at the highest technical level. Many matches remained exciting right up to the end. In the first semifinal, for example, “Team Kurt” prevailed only narrowly in a penalty shootout. In the end, “FC Siewillja” emerged as the tournament champion with a well-deserved 3–1 victory over “Team Kurt.”
Given this year’s positive experience, this approach will be continued next year as well.

The teams’ rankings:

FC Siewillja	1st Place (Jannis Borsdorf, Hanibal, Jonathan Koreng, Marvin Peljord, Zahid, Sascha Huhn, Ella Herboth)
Team Kurt	2nd place (Maxi Lotz, Jakob Reinhard, Nils Blessing, Marc Miran, Max Bräuer, Morteza)
Puzzles	3rd place (Nils Schwand, Finn Busmann, Jannik Anfang, Philipp Schwarz, Tim Brunet, Nils Rupp, Cecilie Arroyo)
The “Hit It” Gang	4th place (Leon Sauer, Laurenz Haarmann, Luca Bode, Thomas Korte, Jonathan Wulf, Michael Hermens)
Basti’s Long Lumps	Eliminated in the preliminary round (Achim Bauer, Basti Loh, Patrick Hahn, Ahmet Peker, Mirko Radatz, Dirk Lange)
Schubi’s Team	Eliminated in the preliminary round (Leon Döringer, Konstantin Zimmer, Jutta Thöhl, Dejan Boguslawski, Habib, Olaf Schubert)
The Wolves	Eliminated in the preliminary round (Paul Wolf, Felix Bach, Niklas Guder, Nils Zeller, Stathi Ioanidis, Sebastian Unsicker)