Despite pandemic-related restrictions, exams were held again in 2021, allowing students to earn the French DELF certificate. Due to the restrictions, the number of participants was lower than usual, but two brave Francophile students still took the B1 exams, prepared for them on their own, and traveled to Giessen for the oral exam: Etienne Harder (left) and Jan Audretsch. It’s all the more wonderful that both achieved excellent results! French teacher Jeannine Walter (right)—who is also the head of languages and the arts at Steinmühle—and the entire school community extend their congratulations.

Participating in the Read & Listen Challenge organized by Helbling Publishing was a huge success for Class 6b at Steinmühle. For taking second place in the competition among all sixth-grade classes nationwide, Jael Bieber received a certificate (photo) and a check for 100 euros on behalf of all her classmates in Class 6b. The money will go toward the class fund.

Nearly all of Steinmühlen’s 6th-grade classes participated in the challenge, reported English teachers Theresa Großer and Stephan Steinebach, who observed a high level of enthusiasm among all participants. The assignment involved reading a book online as part of their homeschooling for two weeks and answering quiz questions about it. The students exchanged ideas via video conferences, discussing their answers to the questions. For the 6th-grade class, the assigned reading was “The Captain’s Castle” by Gavin Biggs, published by Helbling Verlag.

There were 12 chapters to read online. Each chapter included a short audio clip that provided clues about the villain in the exciting story—whom the children had to identify. The main task at the end of the story was to determine who the thief was and who was trying to steal the treasure in the castle. The children also had to figure out exactly where in the castle this treasure was hidden. The contest was conducted entirely through the interactive learning platform HELBLING e-zone.

Teachers Theresa Großer and Stephan Steinebach were delighted that the varied set of tasks was so well received by the students: “The children participated with great enthusiasm and high motivation.” In total, over 7,000 students from all over Germany took part in this exciting competition. The competition was held separately for grades 6, 7, and 8, each with a different set of tasks. Steinmühle is the only school in the Marburg-Biedenkopf district to have placed in the top 10 in one of these categories.

Undeterred by the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Steinmühlen students have once again achieved outstanding results in English this year and earned the globally recognized Cambridge Certificate. Subject teacher Nicole Hohm and Principal Björn Gemmer praised the graduates highly for this achievement and posed for a group photo with them. Examiner Diane Oliver was also very pleased with the results and attested to the students’ excellent performance at a high linguistic level. The students had already achieved these results during the previous school year, while they were still in 11th grade. The photo session takes place a little later each year, specifically once the certificates are available.

Since the first Reading Olympics for the current 7a class—with a total of over 139,000 pages read, and since some students in the class asked me if we could hold another Reading Olympics, we organized a second, slightly modified Reading Olympics during the 14 weeks leading up to summer break. To ensure that students who are not yet strong readers also have a chance to be just as successful in the Reading Olympics as the strong readers—for whom reading comes easily anyway—we based this round on the individual weekly page average from the last Reading Olympics, which students were tasked with matching or exceeding. Everyone who met this goal during the week received 100 points, with the aim of reaching 1,500 points by the end of the Olympics. Bonus points were awarded for every additional 100 pages read and for doubling, tripling, or more than one’s average. After all, 16 students managed to consistently read at or above their average. This is extremely encouraging, especially considering that in the 5th grade 16 students reported never or only rarely reading—and especially given that the students had already performed so well in the first Reading Olympics. Many even read significantly more than they did during the first Reading Olympics. In total, the class read 222,447.5 pages over these 14 weeks, nearly doubling their final result. It is particularly gratifying that some students, for whom reading was extremely difficult, managed to read up to 2,300 pages in a single week. These students in particular—who made the transition from non-readers to readers thanks to this Reading Olympics—can therefore be incredibly proud of themselves. First place in the second Reading Olympics went to Lilly Peters this time, with 9,750 points and 32,266 pages read (previously 18,432 pages), followed by Livia Schulze with 9,500 points and 36,972 pages read (previously 27,381 pages). With this, Livia once again set the record for the most pages read. Third place, also just behind the top two finishers, went to Rebecca Zenker with 9,000 points and 33,541 pages read (previously 25,044 pages). Fourth place —and thus the highest finish among the boys —went to Lasse Hühn with 7,400 points and 12,983 pages read (previously 1,730 pages). Lasse Hühn, who had an average of 91 pages read in his first Olympiad, has now reached an average of 927 pages. In addition to the students mentioned above, the following students also managed to break the 5,000-point mark; according to my prediction, I had expected only three students to do so: Hanna Schmidt-Dege with 7,250 points and 25,697 pages read (previously 10,350 pages), Amelie Laukel with 7,200 points and 22,657 pages read (previously 13,679 pages), and Henry Just with 6,450 points and 20,367 pages read (previously 12,252 pages). Marie Agel (6177 pages, up from 1109), Leon Schmidt (7367.5 pages, up from 3668), and Piet Laufhütte (2934 pages, up from 611) all achieved significant increases in their average reading scores . Laufhütte’s average increased from 32 pages in the first Reading Olympiad to 210 pages. Colin O’Brien, Sophia Weidemann, Junia Molzberger, Len Hülsbeck (son of Ms. Lauginiger), Laurenz Steiß, and Lia Kraft can also be very proud of themselves, as they have noticeably improved their averages from the last Olympiad.

Thus, following the creation of a classroom library, the “Reading Caterpillar,” the book presentations, and the first Reading Olympics, the second Reading Olympics can also be considered a great success.

All participants who earned 1,500 points received small gifts in recognition of their great dedication to reading. The eight winners who earned 5,000 points received larger prizes.