By the age of 12, reading has long since become a part of everyday life. At the same time, reading well and understanding well remain an ongoing and ever-changing challenge—one that lasts a lifetime. This also applies to reading aloud well, where we can often notice how language has the power to enchant us. Readers can thus become enchanters! Around 20 children from classes 6a, 6b, and 6c embraced this magic at the end of 2022 and took part in the nationwide reading competition for sixth graders. The event was organized by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association.

 

Philian Merle represents Steinmühle at the city level

All the girls and boys gave compelling and moving readings, which were met with applause and admiration from their classmates in the audience as well as from the “juries,” consisting of teachers and, in some cases, fellow students. Only one person advances to the next round in this competition, whether it’s during the class reading or in the second round, which took place in early December and involved reading in front of all classmates in the grade. As the “school winner,” according to Frank Wemme, head of the lower secondary school, Philian Merle will “represent” Steinmühle in the next round at the city level in 2023. He was selected by the teachers’ jury in December—which was no easy decision, given the high quality of reading by all three “class winners,” including Aenna Arnold and Matteo Dörbecker.The school extends its heartfelt thanks to all the brave readers for taking part. Their participation is what made it possible for Steinmühle to compete in the first place.

Our photo shows the participants in the 6th-grade reading contest: (top row, from left) Antonia Mahnken, Fabian Preis, Till Kretschmann, Ben Borawski, Ben Templer, Arthur Böning (Class 6c), Sara Strempel, Lotte Schröder (Grade 6b), Anna-Lena Griesler (Grade 6c), Helena Taschner (Grade 6b). Bottom row, from left: Janna Gosejacob, Julia Hedoch (Grade 6c), Samri Wulf, Aenna Arnold (Grade 6a), Matteo Dörbecker (Grade 6b), Philian Merle, Ceysu Sevinc, Maja Böttcher (Grade 6c), Fenja Schlegel (Grade 6b).

This year marked the 11th time a Cambridge exam was held at Steinmühle. It’s a good opportunity to look back. Subject teacher Nicole Hohm reports:

In 2010, I received an invitation to “Cambridge Day”—at first, I thought it was just another invitation to a professional development event like any other. Since the topics of the workshops and presentations sounded interesting, I signed up on the spot without knowing exactly what it was all about—even though it took place on a Saturday in Frankfurt and required a small fee for the presentations and catering. The speakers were excellent across the board, and I was pleasantly surprised by the good organization and the overall experience, which isn’t always the case with training events hosted by the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs.

As the event went on, it became clear to me what it was all about—they wanted to bring the Cambridge exams to schools. One might ask, why would anyone want to pursue an external certificate—one they have to pay for, no less—when schools already offer English classes? The Cambridge exams are administered exactly as they are in every country around the world—whether in Japan, Singapore, Ghana, Egypt, or even Germany—which makes them comparable. You receive certification of your language proficiency, which is recognized worldwide.

Back at Steinmühle, I went straight to the school administration on Monday, presented the concept, and asked if we could try it out in the WU program. The school administration gave the green light: Why not?

In 2011, I taught my first Cambridge course, preparing 11 students for the FCE exam (First Certificate of English), which is now usually referred to simply as First B2 (B2 is the upper-intermediate language level). We were all nervous—the students, of course, because external examiners were coming to test them. And I was just as nervous, because I hoped I had prepared them properly: 10 passed the exam, and one missed it by just one point…

The following year, 16 students participated, and two even performed so well that they were certified at the next higher level—C1. This time, no one failed. In 2014, due to the high number of students (28), we offered two courses: Jeannine Walter taught one, and I taught the other, as always; in 2015, 21 students participated, and in 2016, 17 students took part.

 

We worked with rubber gloves, face masks, and disinfectant

In 2017, we took a year off because we switched from the FCE exam to the Business English exam—we now had a two-year plan: In the newly established WU Business English course in 10th grade, I began preparing the students for the business aspects. In 11th grade, the students were then prepared for the BEC exam (Business English Certificate). In 2018, 18 students took the exam—unfortunately, two did not pass, but two others reached the next higher level. Despite the pandemic, we all bravely carried on—wearing face masks, rubber gloves, and using plenty of hand sanitizer: 28 students participated in 2019, and 14 in 2020. In 2021, 34 students signed up—which was definitely too many for a single class. Matthäus Otte immediately agreed to take over a class. In 2021, an impressive four people reached the C1 level.

But this year’s class really took the cake—out of 29 students, 7 achieved such good results that they were certified at the C1 level. Huge kudos to the students who achieved such outstanding results despite the long period of online instruction in grades 9 and 10. Congratulations!

This year’s Cambridge candidates were: Alina Adamski, Paula Auschill, Max Badouin, Svea Bredendiek, Felix Busch, Anton Graf, Lena Herzog, Ellen Hilt, Emilia Hoffmans, Lennart Holly, Neele Jansen, Lotte Jungfer, Tino Kraft, Sarah Kremer-Golder, David Krüger, Nina Marko, Chiara Massa-Enders, Emilia Quaissa, Ana Catalina Pohl, Finn-Jonas Posingies, Tamira Preck, Luisa Reinhardt, Fabian Seidel, Adama Sow, Anna Steinfeldt, Ariane Stry, Bijan Teymoortash, Anna Tille, Joshua Wieder.