Kennenlerntag

[pne]

Recently, it was "get-to-know day" at Amy's school: where the children who would start school next year would get divided up into classes, so they would get to know who would be their teacher next year and who would be in their class with them.

Amy will be in class 1a with Mrs Wimmer. Each preschool student was allowed to list three children they would like to have in a class with them, and all three of Amy's picks could be considered: her best friends Erik and Vivien and her friend Levin (the latter two from her preschool class, the former from our neighbourhood).

When we had sent Amy to preschool there, we had hoped that she would stay together with that group of children for several years, so we were a bit disappointed when we heard that the two preschool classes would be chopped up and divided among the three first grade classes. But in practice, Amy's group was divided up among only two classes and most of the other group seemed to end up in the third class (with all three classes being "topped up" with children who had not attended preschool there), so Amy knows eight of the twenty-three children in her class already, which is better than nothing.

The day started with the principal's greeting the children in the aula. Then they were divided up into classes and they went up to their future classrooms for about twenty minutes. Then they came back outside to the playground, where the parents would wait for them. They each got a little envelope with the time and day of their first day of school (since Amy is in 1a, her class has the first-day-of-school ceremony first on that day).

What I found interesting was that the envelope also contained an invitation to a going-to-school service in the local church. I wonder whether this was an official communication of the school (and if so, what happened to church and state?) or whether this was something the church came up with independently and got permission to distribute invitations via the school to children (and if so, whether other religious or non-religious groups than the majority Lutheran one would be able to get such permission, too, e.g. what would happen if a local mosque invited children to a service).

Anyway.

A couple of days later was the first parent-teacher conference, which I attended. The teacher introduced herself to the parents, and we introduced ourselves and our children briefly. There were lots of forms to fill out. The teacher also went over the class schedule - or rather, the subjects and the hours per week, since there is no fixed timetable. They'll have English right from grade one, though at one hour a week, it won't be more than a basic introduction, I imagine. Religion also gets one hour a week. Arithmetic and German get the most time, with subjects such as P.E. and drama in between.

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There were several pairs of children with the same name in the first grade; I think I counted two Leas and two Eriks (and there was one Selina and another one who had that name as her middle name). For the most part, they are in separate classes, but Amy's class will have two Florians. We'll see how that works out. (Also in Amy's class are an Angelina sometimes called "Gina" and another child just called Gina. I expect that Angelina will go by her full name, then.)

Comments

[steorra]

I wonder whether this was an official communication of the school (and if so, what happened to church and state?)

What are church-state relations like in Germany?
I see that there's religion in the curriculum, which suggests that there isn't a total separation to begin with.

[pne]

I don't know all the details.

There is no official state church.

However - I think this is for historical reasons - the state collects money on behalf of certain state-recognised churches; especially the two biggest ones in Germany, the Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches. Which is why there's a "religion" box on your tax card and in your tax form; it's important to know whether you belong to one of those dozen or so churches for whom the government collects money (and if so, what proportion of your income is automatically deducted; I think it's 8% or 9% of your income tax, varying by state).

If you don't belong to one of those dozen or so churches, then the internal revenue service doesn't care: so whether you're (say) Latter-day Saint, pagan, or atheist is the same thing to them.

I'm not sure what the role of religion in school curricula is. Some schools replace it with something like "ethics", so I'm not sure how mandatory it is. Others I guess have a kind of "comparative religion" where various religions are discussed.

A friend of mine said that when she was a child, it was basically "colour in Bible stories" class, i.e. explicitly Christian. (And, probably, explicitly Lutheran, since she grew up in the predominantly-Lutheran north.)

So basically, I don't know. I think it's mostly separate, though.

[ewx]

What’s the “aula”?

[pne]

A big indoor hall. It also has a stage behind it, though the curtains are usually closed.

Sometimes tables are set up for children to do homework after school, or it's used for children and parents to sit when they first start school. Though I don't know, I can imagine that school assemblies might be held there, too.

I think we called that sort of space the "aula" at my school. (Ours had no stage, and fixed terraced/tiered areas around three sides with wooden boards that were used as benches/"bleachers".)

In Amy's school, it's called the "Pausenhalle" (recess hall), perhaps because children may be there if the weather is too bad to go outside? I don't know.

What would you call such a hall? What did you call it at school, if you had such a meeting hall?

[ewx]

That would be “the hall”. It held assemblies of all or part of the school most mornings before any lessons, as well as various other functions (exams, annual second-hand uniform sale, shows, etc).