Gete as an `all-day school`- parents letter 15th February 2012

The report on all day schools in an article in the Weser Kurier (31.01) left many parents and employees at the school surprised and confused. In the last few days the fog has cleared a little and I would like to pass on some information.

The large number of parents needing day care for their children can no longer be accommodated in the Bärenhöhle. This year the number of applications for both the Bärenhöhle and the hort at the Betty-Gleim House has again increased.

Now, if we went ahead with the new form of optional all day school this would be an option available to all parents. It is certain that many more parents would make use of this facility and the space available in the school would make it very difficult to cater for so many children.

The planned compulsory all day school , with the addition of another building, means there will be more room available.

Because we know that many of our parents want their children back home at one o`clock the school director has put his support behind the following model:

Part Compulsory All-day School, with each school year comprising :

2 classes until 15.00, and

1 class until 13.00.

Later day care, til 16.00 or (17.00, with payment) will be available on application.
Holiday care will also be available at a cost.

We will begin this model with this years new intake. Every year it will continue with each new intake.

For children already in school the situation will not change and the Bärenhöhle continues.

The future classes from 8.00 -15.00 will have a balanced combination of

Lessons
Play
Lunchtime (monthly charge 27 euro)
Projects
Rest, relaxation and free time.

Because this decision was taken after the applications for this school year were made, all parents of the coming first class have the chance to rethink their application.

I hope to take Gete in this new direction with as many parents as possible staying with us because there a lot of brothers and sisters coming up..........

With best regards

Tildo Hokema

Visit to the Football Stadium

On Saturday 11.2 Block 112 of the Weser stadium was occupied by Gete. 25 kids braved the freezing cold to watch the match between Werder Bremen and Hoffenheim. As a partner school of the football club we were given these tickets as a present. Thanks! Finn made a loud impression with his megaphone and one Getekid even got onto the pitch! Celina was pleased to accompany the referee to the centre circle.

Music to Their Ears

Thanks to Frau Ackermann for organising a reading aloud session for the whole school which took place today during the second hour. Parents, teachers, teaching assistants and volunteers were all involved in this event.

There were 19 books to choose from and the children were allowed to decide for themselves if they wanted to hear about Mr Gum, Mrs Braitwhistle, King Kong or Stink.

During this hour you could have heard a pin drop and afterwards the library was packed!

Carnival Photo Display

We are displaying in school (at the end of the flat building, in front of the Bärenhöle) some wonderful photos by Jan Meier.The Bremen photographer was with us for our Fasching celebrations last year and he took lots of photographs of the children in their different costumes.
There on the wall hangs a robot next to a guardsman, a horse rider can be seen next to the Devil and many more - come and see if you recognise anyone!
This years Carnival is soon here - on the 21st February it`ll all be happening at Gete!

Indoor Football Tournament Finals

26.1.12 was the final round of the Primary School Indoor Football Tournament at Intoor, Woltmerhausen. Our trainer, Mrs Ackershot, had every confidence in the team that had already shone in the previous rounds.

With two wins against Lessingstrasse School and St Joseph´s and a loss against Rönnebeck our team was in third place. Unluckily we then lost 3:1 against Uphauser Str. School, but achieved a very respectable 4th place out of fifty participating schools.

Good job!

Primary School Indoor Football Tournament

Our team (Fynn, Mansour, Finn, Noah, Janni, Paul, Johann, Juan and Elias) have got through the first round.

The finals are on Monday at Intoor in Woltmerhausen.

Good luck, we´re all keeping our fingers crossed!

All-day School?

A hot topic in Bremen right now is the question of all-day schools at primary level. We have researched the general opinion in our school by giving out questionairres to the parents of children in classes 1-3. 171 were returned - that is 91%, so this is clearly something of interest to many people.
Parents were asked for their opinions on the following themes ;
all-day school, provision of lunch at school and general restructuring of the school.
We are also looking into day care requirements.

Here are the results of our survey:

Day care
36% of parents asked would like their children to stay at school until 1 or 2 o`clock.

59% of parents asked would like school to end at :
3 o`clock(34%)
4 o`clock(23%) and
5 o`clock(2%)

Lunch
65% would like children to eat lunch in school
27% would not like children to eat lunch in school.

All-day School
49% of those parents asked were in favour of an all-day school
40% were against this

Many questions were raised here about time restrictions and how people can fit in out of school activities.

Time structure
54% were of the opinion that the time structure needs to be re-organised.
35% would like to see no change.

These themes will continue to be discussed by the school and parent´s committee and of course everyone will be kept informed.