Steinmühle School has cleared another hurdle on its path to becoming a Health-Promoting School and has earned the “Movement and Perception” partial certificate. As a result, the school now holds two of the at least four partial certificates required to earn the overall certificate. Both partial and overall certification are issued by the Hessian Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs.

All certification stages require a high degree of organization and commitment in the respective area. After the first partial certificate focused on the topic of “Nutrition and Consumption,” the focus shifted to school activities related to physical activity and awareness. “The certification process was initiated by forming a steering committee,” reports school athletic director Michael Neirich, who coordinated the overall process and also provided professional development on the topic. “It worked to Steinmühle’s advantage that many of these elements were already part of our everyday school life,” says Neirich in retrospect. “We were in a pretty good position right from the start.”

Nevertheless, it was necessary to collect basic data, compile conceptual information, and prepare documentation on the work. This included conference minutes, project descriptions, press reports, and professional development events. The assessment was based on a self-evaluation and an external evaluation by the certification group of the State School Authority—including a meeting with the school administration, an on-site tour, and classroom observations.

In addition to Michael Neirich, the main contributors to the development of the “School Promoting Physical Activity and Perception” sub-certificate were Manuela Schmidt (steering committee chair), Moritz Zöckler (documentation), Nicole Hohm and Heike Rabben-Martin (addiction prevention), Carmen Bastian (Environmental Office), and Bernd Holly, representing the school administration. Angela Heinemann

They were the “front-line workers” who helped earn the certificate, which was presented by School District Director Heike Grosser (right). From left: Moritz Zöckler, Manuela Schmidt, Michael Neirich.

A tense calm hangs in the air during the final round of the Marburg Student Chess Championship. You can’t even hear the clocks ticking—electronics have made their way here, too. Full concentration on opponents and the board. A large group of students comes through the door and quietly gathers around the first table of the 5th/6th-grade group to watch their top players compete on the top boards. And they aren’t disappointed—the game is thrilling and ultimately ends with their classmate’s victory and his title win in this group. Applause!

The School Chess Individual Championship, organized by the Chess Club and Steinmühle, was well attended again this year. A total of 59 students from 13 schools in the Marburg district took part and competed in three categories (up to 4th grade, 5th and 6th grades, and 7th grade and above) to determine their champions. The event was sponsored by Sparkasse Marburg-Biedenkopf. City Councilwoman Kirsten Dinnebier served as the event’s patron and personally welcomed the participants.

Among the winners were some new faces and some familiar ones. The winner in the category for grades up to 4 was Mark Scherer from the Erich Kästner School, with 6 out of a possible 6 points. In the 5th and 6th grade category, Philipp Dubinker from the Steinmühle School took first place, also with 6 out of 6 points. Finally, in the “older” category, Jakob Wolf from the Elisabethschule won once again.

The organization, which is now well-established, ran smoothly. The next major chess event on the horizon is the schools’ team championship, which will take place this summer.

Text and photo: Helge Neidhardt, Schachklub Marburg e.V.

This is what winners look like: (from left) Jakob Wolf (Grades 7 and up, Elisabethschule), Mark Scherer (up to Grade 4, Erich-Kästner-Schule), Philipp Dubinker (Grades 5/6, Steinmühle, Class 5b)

With a mixed team, the students from Steinmühle competed in the Class IV basketball tournament. Coach Marc Bepperling reports:

We had some minor difficulties at the start of the course, but managed to improve slightly on last year’s time, finishing with a total time of 7:50:53. In the group stage, we now had to play four games. Our goal was to advance from the group stage in second place.

After a strong start against Philippinum II (23–11), we also won our second game against Waldorfschule II by a score of 23–10. As expected, we then lost to the Elisabethschule I team by a score of 6–45. In the final match against Amöneburg, it was a close one, but we managed to prevail as planned with a score of 23–15. We then faced the top team from the other group and lost 16–51.

Unfortunately, the 3rd/4th place game didn’t go ideally for us either. Despite trailing by 6 points, we were at least able to finish the competition with a score of 13–21 in the final game. Overall, this meant a solid 4th place finish among the 9 participating schools. Our goals for next year are ambitious, since we’ll be able to field the exact same team again. We’d like to thank all the participants and look forward to what’s next.

Players:
Merle Herwig
Zoe Closmann
Dejan Pavlovic
Dylan Caroll
Elias Eckardt
Jaron Häußermann
Jonas Nolte
Leonhard Rumpel

Coach:
Marc Bepperling