A Sustainable Start to the New School Year

The school year always starts with a special project week dedicated to new encounters and social community. During this "Encounter Week" we arrive, welcome new students and prepare for an exciting school year.

On Monday we arrived together, received timetables and logbooks and above all had a lot to tell each other before we created and maintained our portfolios on Tuesday. On Wednesday we elected our Class Representatives.

On Thursday we met to talk together about our values. Under the question "How do we want to live and learn with each other in our learning family?", we created lists of values in the classes, which were then further discussed in a meeting of the Student Council and School Management. One thing was clear: All voices are equal, no matter if in the first or thirteenth Grade!

At the meeting, the student representatives presented their drafts. A total of 17 posters were shown, a video and even a self-written rap was performed. The focus was on mutual respect and awareness, but also on topics such as empathy, sustainable use of materials, humour and exchange. This is how our set of values for the 2019/20 School Year came about.

Each “Encounter Week” ends with a playful school competition in which all classes develop projects on a theme and then vote on the best ideas. This year, the focus was on the 17 Goals for Sustainable Development that were jointly set by the United Nations as part of Agenda 2030. In the future, our school will develop and implement new ideas for a more sustainable everyday education.

In the afternoon, the winners were announced: In the elementary school, the 5th Grade collected the most votes. They suggested organizing a bake sale and planting new trees with the money collected. In the projects of the Secondary School Grade 8a convinced the most students. They suggested that in future the school canteen should only offer fruit and vegetables from the region and would like to introduce even more waste separation in everyday school life.