OBSERVER LIS March 2015 Newsletter of the Leipzig International School e. V. · IB World School LIS sent two teams to represent the school in a Primary Schools’ basketball tournament. Both teams (one coached by Ms Wohlberg, and one by Mr Reinhardt) started off very well in the tournament: Mr Reinhardt’s combination won two of their first three games and qualified themselves for 4th or 5th place. Our players showed great teamwork, led by Emre Atay, Ryusei Maruyama, Armin Knaul and Elliot Schilling. Juliet Standfuss and Paula Stallkamp, two very talented young ladies, played outstandingly well, improving with every single game. As a result of the good start, the whole team became visibly more confident. Jacob Kreisel and Robert Saalbach did a great job defending their own players and stealing the ball. The team managed to win both their final two games and secured a 4th place finish. Coach Wohlberg’s team started even better, winning all of their first three games. Captain Ory Levy was not only the top scorer for his team; he also found his open teammates when they were in a better scoring position. Gabriel Sanchez Wagner was one of the players who ran many fast breaks and received great passes to put the ball into the basket. Tom Gacek’s defence transition was fabulous and prevented fast breaks from the other team. Eve Heinz and Gregor Stallkamp grabbed many rebounds. Kiara Liening, Johannes Giesecke and Paul Schuster showed great timing to jump into the passing line of the other teams, steal the ball and pass it accurately to their teammates. They www .intschool-leipzig.com LIS OBSERVER 1 Content 2 From the Head of School Fee Levels 2015 – 16 3 LIS Works Council Global Perspectives at LIS 4 It's Carnival The Rainbows – EY1FS 5 Ballet and Violins Trip to Pergamon Museum 6 Lions Invitational Basketball Tournament 7 Lions Badminton Teams Dominate GISST 8 LIS Charity Committee Joseph Mbamba 9 MCP Prep-Camp 10 Hort Highlights 11 Winter Break at LIS 12 Living in Leipzig Mini Basketball Festival won the first game by a few points. The final match was between Leipzig International School and Pablo Neruda Grundschule. The little Lions started a bit nervously, and were surprised by the intensity of the performance of their final opponent. At half time the Lions were down 12:4. After a good motivating team talk, the team fought much harder, stepped up on the defensive side, stole the ball and scored four baskets in a row to bring the score to 12:12! With the game nearly over, both teams scored another basket. The Lions were in ball possession when Tom Gacek was hit very hard and got pushed onto the floor. The game stopped - and time ran out without permitting another shot. The final score stood 14:14. With the game finishing a draw, and both teams having won their previous game, the decision went down to points difference. Owing to the fact that our Lions had won the game before by three points and the Pablo Neruda Grundschule had won theirs by nine, our opponents were the tournament winners, and the Lions finished second. A special thank you went to Femke Vos who wasn’t allowed to compete because she is a few days too old. She decided to accompany the teams anyway, and helped the organizers from the Schule am Rabet who hosted the tournament. Congratulations to both LIS teams! 8 games, 6 victories, 1 draw, 1 loss: 2nd and 4th place out of nine teams participating and one happy helper with her own medal! Katharina Wohlberg, Coach
Transcript
OBSERVERLISMarch 2015Newsletter of the Leipzig International School e. V. · IB World School
LIS sent two teams to represent the school in a Primary Schools’ basketball tournament. Both teams (one coached by Ms Wohlberg, and one by Mr Reinhardt) started off very well in the tournament: Mr Reinhardt’s combination won two of their first three games and qualified themselves for 4th or 5th place. Our players showed great teamwork, led by Emre Atay, Ryusei Maruyama, Armin Knaul and Elliot Schilling. Juliet Standfuss and Paula Stallkamp, two very talented young ladies, played outstandingly well, improving with every single game. As a result of the good start, the whole team became visibly more confident. Jacob Kreisel and Robert Saalbach did a great job defending their own players and stealing the ball. The team managed to win both their final two games and secured a 4th place finish. Coach Wohlberg’s team started even better, winning all of their first three games. Captain Ory Levy was not only the top scorer for his team; he also found his open teammates when they were in a better scoring position. Gabriel Sanchez Wagner was one of the players who ran many fast breaks and received great passes to put the ball into the basket. Tom Gacek’s defence transition was fabulous and prevented fast breaks from the other team. Eve Heinz and Gregor Stallkamp grabbed many rebounds. Kiara Liening, Johannes Giesecke and Paul Schuster showed great timing to jump into the passing line of the other teams, steal the ball and pass it accurately to their teammates. They
www .intschool-leipzig.com LIS OBSERVER 1
Content2 From the Head of School
Fee Levels 2015 – 16
3 LIS Works Council Global Perspectives at LIS
4 It's Carnival The Rainbows – EY1FS
5 Ballet and Violins Trip to Pergamon Museum
6 Lions Invitational Basketball Tournament
7 Lions Badminton Teams Dominate GISST
8 LIS Charity Committee Joseph Mbamba
9 MCP Prep-Camp
10 Hort Highlights
11 Winter Break at LIS
12 Living in Leipzig
Mini Basketball Festival
won the first game by a few points. The final match was between Leipzig International School and Pablo Neruda Grundschule. The little Lions started a bit nervously, and were surprised by the intensity of the performance of their final opponent. At half time the Lions were down 12:4. After a good motivating team talk, the team fought much harder, stepped up on the defensive side, stole the ball and scored four baskets in a row to bring the score to 12:12! With the game nearly over, both teams scored another basket. The Lions were in ball possession when Tom Gacek was hit very hard and got pushed onto the floor. The game stopped - and time ran out without permitting another shot. The final score stood 14:14. With the game finishing a draw, and both teams having won their previous game, the decision went down to points difference. Owing to the fact that our Lions had won the game before by three points and the Pablo Neruda Grundschule had won theirs by nine, our opponents were the tournament winners, and the Lions finished second. A special thank you went to Femke Vos who wasn’t allowed to compete because she is a few days too old. She decided to accompany the teams anyway, and helped the organizers from the Schule am Rabet who hosted the tournament. Congratulations to both LIS teams! 8 games, 6 victories, 1 draw, 1 loss: 2nd and 4th place out of nine teams participating and one happy helper with her own medal!
Katharina Wohlberg, Coach
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From the Head of School
2 LIS OBSERVER www .intschool-leipzig.com
Sport makes our front page for good reasons. The LIS Lions are having an excellent year: larger numbers are participating, and the teams are competing more successfully, than ever before. Sport is not by its nature always edifying or formative – in the professional arena, hyper-competitive celebrities squabble over unseemly piles of money, while cheating and corruption reach even the highest echelons of the world’s favourite game. But when played as at LIS, sport can certainly do a power of good both to individuals and communities. Our teams are serious and disciplined, and play to win; but they also enjoy their games, the company of their team mates, and the encouragement of coaches who are passing on their own love of sport. When they do lose, even when outgunned by far superior opponents, they accept the experience philosophically and learn from it. Thanks and praise, then, to all who represent us, and to the teachers and coaches who help them do so.
A recent Secondary assembly, thoughtfully described and explained in Mr Raggett’s subsequent letter to parents, struck a chord with many: while the internet and its myriad devices are indispensable to our economy, our education and our entertainment, they also have an empty and addictive aspect which can do harm at any age but particularly in adolescence. Student use of ICT in and outside the school will become even more intense and sophisticated as we improve our capabilities and resources in this area. We will only justify that word ‘improvement’ if we judiciously employ technology to serve and enhance our intellectual and emotional lives rather than swamping or replacing them. Just as with sport: if students, teachers and parents work together with a clear vision, we can thrive on the creative, liberating face of ICT, and shun the futile dispiriting one.The week of publication has seen the Primary School buzzing with enthusiasm for reading, generated by Book Week; the senior drama
Payment Due Dates
Annual Administrative FeeThis fee is due at intake for new acceptances or by 15 April for the following school year.
Capital Fee to Grade 1–12Due upon admission. Instalment payment options are available through the Business Office. Fee applies to new admissions to Grade 1 through 12 and is waived for children who have been part of the LIS Early Childhood programme for two or more years.
TuitionPayments are due monthly by the third day of each month from June 2015 through May 2016.
LIS Sibling Discounts• 25% for the second child from a family• 50% for the third and further children• Discounted fees for Nursery and Early Years according to the
schedule determined by the City of Leipzig.
Financial AidLIS provides reductions in fees to families who demonstrate that they cannot otherwise afford the regular school fees. Financial aid is made available for 25% of spaces. The financial aid application can be downloaded in either an English or a German version from the LIS website. Applications should be submitted on paper to the LIS Business Office.
Introducing the Betriebsrat (Works Council) at LIS
Following the elections held on the 8th of January 2015, the following employees of LIS were elected as the first ever works council (Betriebsrat) at LIS: Josephine Chung-Fun Ng, Paula Garnham, Ulrike Metzler, James Kotzsch, Matthew Lane, Angel R. Iruretagoyena Antoranz, Ottmar Osthof.We are a team comprised of Hort, ECC, Primary and Secondary staff and have a wide variety of experience at many different international and state schools. We are looking forward to working together with the staff and management team at LIS. You can approach any one of us either directly or via email at our official email address:
Angel R. Iruretagoyena Antoranz
Josephine Chung-Fun Ng
Ottmar Osthof
Paula Garnham
James Kotzsch
Matthew Lane
Ulrike Metzler
Global Perspectives: Going Forward at LIS
The Course at LISThe newest course to join the IGCSE family at Leipzig International School is Global Perspectives which has figured among the students’ curriculum choices since 2010. Cambridge IGCSE Global Perspectives aims to develop learners who are independent and empowered to take a productive and socially responsible place in an ever-changing, information-heavy, interconnected world. The course puts great emphasis on an understanding of global issues and their causes, effects and possible solutions, allowing students to appreciate the complexity of many questions, to form independent judgements and find a sense of their own active place in the world.These aims are met through studying a variety of global themes and concerns including topics such as poverty and inequality, conflict and peace, disease and health as well as technology and the economic divide. The dynamic nature of the course ensures that current rather than merely historical global events and issues are explored in class. Recently, for example, students researched the background and response to the Ebola crisis and created a news broadcast to communicate their findings.The course develops proficiency in independent and collaborative skills with the requirement of both a group project with a measurable outcome and an individual research project.
The History of Global Perspectives at LISSince 2010 two cohorts have completed the two-year course taught by Mr Bell and Mr Mills achieving a 100% pass rate and 83% rate of A* to C results. Students of LIS have been awarded best Global Perspective student in Germany in each examination year since the course has been taught at the school: Anne List (2012) and Yasmin Youssef (2013) taking these honours.
Going GlobalMr Mills, Mr Bell and the Grade 9 Global Perspectives group have recently been selected by Cambridge International Examinations to develop and film a training video for teachers new to the course. This video will be part of a secure teacher training site and will affect international teaching of the course on a global scale. This places LIS at the forefront of international teaching and recognises the expertise of our students and teachers of the course. Global Perspectives at LIS will also feature in the next edition of ‘Outlook’, the Cambridge International Examinations publication. LIS has become recognised as a centre of excellence for the IGCSE Global Perspectives course as we endeavour to educate our students as citizens of the world.
Ian Mills, Social Studies
Fee Levels 2015 – 16Fees School Year 2015-16
Nursery 1 – 2
Administrative Fee (annual) € 380.00 Due upon admission (for returning
children, due by 15 April 2015)
Fee (monthly) € 210.14 Discounts according to City of
ensemble impressing three full houses with a performance of ‘The Gut Girls’; and Grades Two and Four in peaceful overnight occupation of the school building. Images and reviews of these and more events will await the next edition.
David Smith, Head of School
LIS OBSERVER LIS OBSERVERBallet and Violins
Grade 4 Trip to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin
What an excitement! On 7th February the LIS auditorium was filled with parents, grandparents and friends of LIS. Mrs. Schröter, our violin teacher and Mrs. Moriyama, the ballet teacher of the ballet art studio next to LIS, had prepared a lovely programme consisting of wonderful violin pieces and a great ballet show. The children had fun performing, there were different dances and solos but the best was the group ensemble playing and dancing together – just amazing!
As part of our unit on Myths and Legends, the Grade 4 classes visited the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. We were able to see lots of amazing statues and art work from different periods in time, to link with the work we have been doing in class. Here are some thoughts from the students about their day:
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What fun EY1FS has been having, while beginning our new IPC topic, Clothes! For the next five weeks our students will become immersed in the world of fashion. Not only will we learn about clothing vocabulary and how to put our own clothes on independently, we will also learn the importance of clothes for protection from the weather, and which kind of clothing is important for each specific season. We will learn about different ways in which clothing is made. We will become fashion designers too, and learn how clothing helps us express ourselves: how exciting it is to play dress up in our Drama Area’s Clothing Shop! Looking for a new pair of Lederhosen – or a Sari? Drop by our shop. One of our little retailers will be happy to assist you!
Deborah Fischer, EY1 Teacher
The Rainbows – EY1FS
It's Carnival!!!Parades, costumes, music and a whole lot of merriment... that is Carnival! Teachers and educators at the Early Childhood Centre prepared a variety of festive games and activities for our children to enjoy a fantastic carnival party during this carnival season. The children had a great time decorating, making carnival sweets, masks and funny hats; they learned how to dress up for the perfect carnival disguise and made fantastic party and carnival decorations. The kids enjoyed a wonderful day of fun and lively entertainment and were quite exhausted when their parents came to pick them up.
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I found it great how the old people put together cleverness, imagination joined by creativity to build those massive sculptures.
Lucca, 4MSP
I enjoyed the castle entrance of Babylon and was shocked to know that if you paint and glaze a brick before it is even solid, it will stay coloured for thousands of years.
Xavier, 4MSP
I enjoyed the part the most where we went to the Market Gate of Miletus, it was found in Turkey. First it was broken up into pieces then the pieces were put into boxes and then brought here by boat.
Zoe, 4AMT
I enjoyed to trip to the Pergamon Museum because I learned that the Ishtar Gate was in Babylon and the animals on it were for a goddess.
Sameet, 4AMT
I really liked the palace made out of ceramics from the Mesopotamian period. I was surprised how complex the Arabic patterns were too.
Katarina, 4CCB
Rectification
In the last issue unfortunately
an error occurred. The article
"Experiencing the History of World War
One" on page 4 was written by the
following students of class 9NAB: Laura
Neumann, Hannah Rotzoll, Felicity Upmeyer. Linda
Effinger, 10IM, wrote the stories about the runner
and the miner. You will find the correct version on
the LIS website under Key Documents/LIS
Observer.
Notes and Announcements
LIS Spring Flea MarketJoin us again for a flea market for children’s items!The LIS Spring Flea Market is set for Saturday, 25 April 2015; the event is scheduled to begin at 10:00 in the morning. If you would like to register for a vending table, please contact Parent Community Coordinator Liane Lindenlaub at
This is the perfect chance to sell your surplus children’s items, so register early before tables sell out! Wish Tree - Big Thank You
The children living in the Children’s home in Grünau
were very happy about all the wonderful
Christmas gifts they got from our LIS
students last December. To express
their thanks they painted three
pictures for us as a little present. We
would like to take the opportunity to
thank the LIS students and their parents
very much for their commitment each
Christmas which makes the ‘Wish Tree’ every
year such a great success. For some of
the children this is the only Christmas
gift they will receive.
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The U14 teams travelled to Hannover, and competed against ten other GISST schools. The competition was of high quality, but after the first day there was a positive vibe from both the boys and the girls teams. On the second day, the boys played eventual winners Hannover, losing narrowly. This meant they did not qualify for the semi-finals. They then played Bavaria, a team they had beaten in the group stages the day before. In a close match, the boys lost, meaning a final position in 7th place. A special mention must go to Johann Schmalbruch, who only lost one game all weekend. The girls team had gone unbeaten on day one, and they continued their fine form on day 2, getting to the semi-final quite convincingly. They then played Stuttgart, and having beaten them, confronted Bavarian International School in the final. After the doubles results, the teams were tied, meaning that every singles game mattered. Three victories from four games, including a titanic battle between LIS top seed Sydney Jakobs and the BIS top seed meant that LIS secured victory. Additional good news was that Lucie Bezner
Last year we sent two basketball teams to Wroclaw in Poland to compete in a mini-tournament. Both teams returned to Leipzig having lost all their games, but having learnt a great deal. A year on, and having developed skills through fantastic training sessions led by coaches Ms Wohlberg and Mr Reinhardt, and having grown A LOT, our teams’ tournament results were very different. This year Wroclaw International School visited us in Leipzig, and they were joined by Berlin British School, who travelled down on the Saturday morning. The weekend started with friendly games between LIS and WIS on the Friday evening. Both LIS teams dominated play, with a higher tempo and greater skill level being displayed. Organisation of the team was paramount, and all players did their job well. The Friday night finished with both LIS teams recording comprehensive victories.The Saturday was a closer affair when LIS and WIS met in the tournament, and the boy’s game in particular went to the wire. However, both LIS teams won, meaning that they had decisively banished the demons from last year’s tournament. LIS then played Berlin British; the girls won their game emphatically, dominating the Berlin team on all parts of the court. The boys came up against a very tall and powerful team, but met them head on. Several of the younger
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Lions Badminton Teams Dominate GISSTLIS Teams Win the ‘Lions Invitational Basketball Tournament’
was the best 3rd seed player, and Sydney Jakobs finished as the best 1st seed player. While the U14 teams were in Hannover, our Varsity teams were in Berlin, and they experienced even more success. The girls team finished in 2nd place, losing a very close final against ISR, Neuss. All girls worked extremely hard, and played with the spirit that LIS students have become renowned for. Lisha Wussler finished the tournament as the best 2nd seed girl. The boys team went one better, winning the tournament with solid performances from all players. In a high quality field, the teamwork,
The well-known British quotation ‘a year is a long time in politics’ could easily be changed to ‘a year is a long time in sport’.
It has been a very successful year for our GISST teams this year, and after the Volleyball teams’ victories in their tour-naments, further GISST triumphs were achieved by our badminton teams.
players demonstrated a level of play beyond their years, which bodes well for the future. Icing on the cake was that two LIS players were voted players of the tournament. Danae
Amiridou and Jamie Brannon were by far the best players on display, and got
the plaudits they deserved. We send a huge thank you to all the parents who hosted visiting students that weekend, and also to Kevin Tracy (faculty) and Amani Al
Meklef (Grade 11) who assisted with running the score table. Particular
thanks must go to Kathi Wohlberg who coached throughout the entire weekend, and organised the referees and use of the outside gym. Good luck to all our basketball teams in the upcoming GISST tournaments!GO LIONS!!!
Paul McTigue, Athletic Director
and attitude displayed was fantastic, and all boys deserve credit. Alex Putz finished the tournament as best 2nd Seed player. The LIS badminton teams topped GISST for points scored this weekend, accumulating 33 GISST points over this weekend, which pushed us up to 4th in the overall GISST table. The badminton programme has developed strongly over the years, and next year LIS teams will be the teams to beat in GISST, so players beware! Credit for these teams must go to Tom Elms and Atashi Mukherjee, who have both contributed to the training sessions. Thanks must also go to Anna Kmiec and Kelly Carpenter who chaperoned the trips.GO LIONS!!!! Paul McTigue, Athletic Director
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You may wonder why there is a Charity Committee at LIS. We are a group of teachers and staff at the school which holds regular meetings to collect new project ideas and to coordinate these projects together. LIS has decided to offer support, financially or in non-material ways, to two projects in particular. The first of these is MCP (Make Change Possible), an international organisation that runs projects supporting infrastructural development in Namibia. Students and teachers have the opportunity to visit Namibia once a year to gain real hands-on experience. MCP fairs at LIS give our students an insightful view of the projects. The local project LIS chose to support is Haus Leben e.V., a non-profit association that cares for cancer patients in Leipzig. With the help of our donations, Haus Leben e.V. is able to provide psychological support to 7 children whose parents suffer from cancer. Apart from that, LIS will always try to act when immediate help is needed, especially in case of natural catastrophes. In recent times, fundraising
The Make Change Possible team from LIS travelled this past month (February 13-15) to Darmstadt to meet the teams and to begin preparations for our projects in what is aptly called the M.C.P. Prep-Camp. There are two student teams going to Mayana, Namibia this year; one of these leaves in April, and is primarily made up of students from Bonn International School. The summer team includes LIS Grade11 students Charlotte, Wendy, Leila, Kathi, and Mrs. Gwen Brunet. We accompany grade-11 student, Roberto, and our Project Leader, Monika, from Heidelberg International School.Much of the time was spent answering the questions we all had, and learning about what life is like in Mayana, Namibia. Big challenges face each team. The spring team will be dealing with southern summer temperatures reaching the high 30s, while our summer team will experience a Namibian winter with possible freezing temperatures at night. Every day each team hauls water from the Okavango River for showering, but drinking water will come from our daily shopping excursions. We will be cooking over fires, and all duties will be divvied up among the team. The weekend began with dividing up the labour, which includes the cooking and cleaning. Monika, our project leader and the Chair of Make Change Possible, stressed punctuality and independence. This is the best lesson learnt, as the teams will have to complete their projects on-site independently and cook and clean for over 20 people over a fire each night. The students took turns discussing their initial plans with Monika and she helped shape those concepts, given
The LIS Charity Committee LIS-Crocodiles Return from the Make Change Possible Prep-Camp
Joseph MbambaJoseph is 35 years old. His wife Martha and his three children Gerhard, Albert and Julia, live in the village of Mayana, Namibia. They have also taken in two boys who now live with them. Their house is on the edge of the flood plain where the Mbamba families grow their own food, maize, millet and some vegetables.Joseph is a trained builder. He has worked in other places in Namibia, but decided to return to his village and build up a livelihood there. He is the second youngest of 10 children. Joseph went to school and completed grade 12 – it was in school
that Joseph and Martha met. Martha was not able to complete her schooling because she was expecting their first-born son, Gerhard. Soon after his birth, Martha was diagnosed with epilepsy and has since been on medication. Like her husband, she is hard-working, but she has suffered from delicate health for many years. Both Joseph and Martha have their family to look after: As a small child Gerhard drank from a bottle of bleach, thinking it was milk. He was in hospital for a very long time recovering.
Gerhard wants to become a doctor in the future. Albert’s most important focus is football. Julia has attended the Meho Kindergarten and is now in school.In 2011, just after he’d moved to live in Mayana
again, Joseph and Monika met for the first time. This was the start of his involvement with MCP.In 2012 the MCP team and Joseph did a lot of planning. The construction
plan and budget for the Kindergarten were started. We also had the first
the resources and baggage weight limits of our journey. Project ideas included math-engineering games, sport training for girls, reading literacy and art for children, computer literacy classes for adults, and marketing of the newly built guest house. We took several purposeful walks to remind the students that our life in Mayana will be spent largely outdoors. We collected firewood for the cook out Saturday night and Wendy proved herself very
worthy of being our official fire-starter. The Prep-camp was a great success and each
student made great strides toward developing their project ideas and bonding as a complete team. Go team Crocodiles!
Gwendolyn Brunet, Social Studies
actions took place at school to support people in the Philippines or Haiti to name just two.Over the past years, the school has built up strong relationships to charitable organisations like the Children’s orphanage in Wurzen (Christmas in a Shoebox), a home for severely disabled children in Leipzig-Grünau (Wish-tree), and refugees homes and an organisation working with homeless children benefit from our donations in kind (clothing and children’s items). It’s not only
monetary support that is needed; recently, we collected a huge number of cuddle toys, which an LIS parent personally shipped to Bangladesh. She supported the organisation ‘Healing Hands Bangladesh’, a consortium of paediatricians and surgeons who are offering their practical
support to a children’s hospital in Bangladesh. We were impressed as we heard the reports with a lump in our throats, when the little patients received their medical treatment and were provided with their personal toy collected by our students to give their age-mates a small pleasure.
Also through our community we had our attention drawn to a project that is trying to build up a school library in Uganda, Africa. Some laptops and technical equipment formerly used at LIS will now be used to help making this project a successful one.The Charity Committee strives to encourage our students to actively develop their own project ideas and show civic engagement supporting local, regional or international organisations. The aim is to inform the LIS community about the various activities, and make our activities transparent. The Committee involves CAS Coordinators, PR, Primary and Secondary School teachers and the Parent Community Coordinator. We happily help advertising and communicating new project ideas, looking for motivated helpers and informing the LIS community about the outcomes of our efforts. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions regarding the projects LIS is supporting. Feel free to join us at our weekly meetings (every Thursday from 13:15 in the Loft Office) or send us your feedback to
Looking forward to hearing from you!
traditional dinner with Joseph’s family and the idea of the guesthouse was born. Joseph travelled to Swakopmund in November and received an intensive computer training course from an MCP member.During Easter 2013 Joseph travelled to Swakopmund again to join the MCP CAS trip and work on the planning for the construction of the guesthouse, as well as completing the construction of the Kindergarten in Mayana, which was officially opened in July 2013.In 2014 Joseph completed the construction of the guesthouse. The idea was born to travel to Germany.
Gerhard received intensive computer training and became Joseph’s secretary, typing up the monthly update report that MCP receives. This is one of the many tasks Joseph has undertaken.In 2015 Joseph will travel to Germany and visit all the schools involved with MCP. His trip is another landmark in the development of MCP and part of the Fifth Anniversary celebration. Joseph will be visiting LIS Tuesday and Wednesday, 21st and 22nd of April. Be part of this meeting with a remarkable person.
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LIS collected more than 180 soft animals for sick children in Bangladesh.
Students having fun at the MCP Fair. Christmas gifts were delivered to children at a refugee camp in Leipzig-Schönefeld.
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10 LIS OBSERVER www .intschool-leipzig.com
The experience of Holiday Hort with new children, new colleagues and new spaces becomes amazing when you can become a part of the setting, the enthusiasm and the energy. This past winter break, the educators from the Primary Hort team and the educators from the Early Years (EY) team merged their ideas and backgrounds in what became a hand in hand action from the first planning steps through to the running of a full educational holiday programme.Hort educators got into the game by “exporting” their previous experience, gained in running past Holiday Hort programmes. Meanwhile, the EY educators opened the doors of their rooms and shared their strong connections to the children. The result was a smooth cooperation that laid the
Observation 1: Board games can attract children’s interest simply by sporting an attractive cover or having interesting materials. This leads the children to set up and play their own creative versions of the games, making up rules as they go. While exciting and enjoyable, this can also become frustrating as disagreements about made-up rules often ensue. Observation 2: Neglected board games can suddenly become popular if an adult plays them with the children according to the rules. Suddenly all the appealing material makes sense and games like ‘Carcassonne’ or ‘Risk’ become more requested.Observation 3: In the Game Room, there are many board games, but only a fraction of them get played. These games have a lot of potential for fun and learning. They challenge the
Winter Break at LISHort Highlights
Let’s Play! Putting the ‘Game’ Back in the Game Room
LIS Educators Make New Friends: Two Locations, One Setting
children to plan, think, strategize, decide, read and calculate.The Project: Acting on these observations, Hort set up a plan to better utilize the Game Room’s potential. The ‘Let’s Play!”’ project now announces a new board game each week. Throughout the week, an educator introduces the game, and at the end of the week, the children rate the game. The results are published on Hort’s display boards. Some children also volunteer to be experts, and are available to introduce the game even after the ‘Let’s Play!’ station has moved onto another new game. The Learning Outcomes: Each week since January a new game has been introduced, children’s interests have been piqued and the Game Room’s popularity has risen to rival that of other spaces. The children are challenged to understand complex game mechanics and the abstract ideas behind them. They learn how to think and move in
Primary Students Experience “Games & Adventures”
While the children in EY spent their winter break making new friends and celebrating carnival, the children in Grades 1-5 were busy with their own games and adventures. The children initiated the week by organizing a
football tournament, and later they were challenged as Mr Marius and Mr Chris introduced a game of Viking battles, known as “Viking Chess”. The adventures, both real and imagined, were just beginning….A city-wide scavenger hunt turned the city into a life-size trivial pursuit game. In games such as “Activity” communication was the focus as the children did everything but say the actual word: draw it, act it and describe it. Special theatre guests showed the children that games can be played not only with toys, but also with your bodies in a special round of “People Memory”. The famous forest knights, “Waldritter”, of the Connewitzer forest took the group on an imaginary journey to save the stolen winter fairy from a magical orc.Throughout the week there was plenty of time to form new friendships, re-tank with healthy meals and create your own adventures. While some children choose new board games to learn each afternoon, others started and continued a role play imitating a school setting. Being a teacher can be quite a fun adventure, the children discovered! Friday kept everyone moving once again, as the children travelled to the indoor playground, “Kinderland Taucha”. After one last burst of adventure, the children happily napped on the tram ride back to LIS, dreaming perchance of larger than life crocodiles, Viking kings, theatre games and winter fairies. Mr Marius
Fairy Tales Come to Life in Winter Holiday Hort
On Wednesday of the winter break, LIS ventured into the Connewitzer Forest, home of the Forest Knights (“Waldritter”). Upon entering the woods, they were met by the knights of the forest. “Where is all the promised snow?” the knights asked, “Why isn’t it –10° C? Why can we hear the birds of the spring already?” The answer was clear: Someone had captured the winter and it was up to the LIS gang to bring winter back…. To find out how this thrilling adventure turned out, visit Hort’s Upper Hallway and view the story display board.
Hort Comings & Goings
In February, we in Hort had some sad goodbyes coupled with new hellos. As we said a fond farewell to Educator Assistants, Maybelle Antipuesto & Terris Lutter, we also welcomed Jasmin Levesley into the fold. Jasmin is well known to our children as she has been a trusted cover for the past year and a half. Welcome also to our new Hort Educator, Maria Wolf. Maria has spent the past years traveling, living and studying both abroad and here in Germany. With sojourns in England, Spain and the USA under her belt, she returns to her home region to spend time near her family in Gera. Maria has earned both a BA and an MA in Social Work, one in Germany and one in the USA. She brings to the Hort Team the best of both worlds and is excited to continue working in an international setting. Beyond work, she enjoys being outside and active, running, swimming, playing badminton, listening to music and of course, travelling. Finally we are happy to announce the arrival of two interns studying to become educators here in Leipzig. We wish both Dorian Laubvogel and Carolin Fiedler happy learning moments at LIS Hort!
Hort Opens up to Volunteers & Interns!This year we have begun to strengthen partnerships with volunteer programmes to encourage more engagement of young people here in Hort. These volunteers are donating their time to our children, and role modelling an important part of world citizenship: community service! Rachael Cowan and Danae Amiridou from LIS Grade 9 started the ball rolling and are showing primary students how rewarding it is to give back. Additionally, we welcome both Lexa Gallegos & Lillian Thorman. These two students from Abilene Christian University in Texas are currently studying abroad in Leipzig and looking to build connections to the local community. A big thank you to all of our international volunteers!
The Business of Relaxation
A new enterprise has emerged in Hort’s Quiet Room: a Massage Club! Initiated by third graders, Christoph Schulze and Nam Hoang Nguyen, the Massage Club has quickly become popular, especially among its loyal "staff". Each day, the young entrepreneurs are busy setting up the massage practice, advertising via posters and magazines, preparing tickets and, of course, providing relaxing massages. A wide range of massages are on offer such as the "Short Stop Go" for one minute or the ultimate "Battlefield" massage for 15 minutes! You too are invited to pop by for a relaxing massage at the end of the day, compliments of the Massage Club.
Ms Jayne
complicated systems of rules and follow patterns of action-reaction.
They become skilled in planning winning strategies, and they theorize on the
effects of luck. They show signs of being fair winners, and also learn how to deal with feelings of loss and defeat when their strategies fail. The games often require the students to bring with them mathematical, logical and language competences. Losing, however, does not mean giving up. Instead the children rise to the challenge and continue playing, developing higher competencies that lead to success through practice and perseverance. Socially, the board games involve talking to each other or even cooperating with fellow players. The ‘Let’s Play!’ table is a place for respectful engagement with peers, negotiations, compromises, consensus building, but also a place to learn to say no and stand your ground when faced with unfair play or offers. These moments of enjoyment are also being transferred into the family setting. Back home, children inspired by ‘Let’s Play!’ have chosen to spend their pocket money to buy their new favourite games. These children excitedly report back to Hort about the long evenings spent together with their loved ones without ever having to push a button or turn on an electronic devise. If you would like to find more about the ‘Let’s Play!’ project, pay the Game Room an extended visit, have a look at our review posters or ask Hort’s budding game experts!
Mr Chris
foundation for deeper future partnerships and a strong connection between the two realities of our school.The educators’ next challenge will be coming up soon during the spring break, as they grow and improve upon the quality of this successful first action. The goal will be to continue learning from each other while simultaneously allowing EY3 children to get to know Primary’s Hort educators prior to their big move to Grade 1 in August. The Hort and EY educators are looking forward to creating one setting out of two locations.
Mr Davide
LIS OBSERVER 11
Jasmin Levesley
Maria Wolf
Maybelle Antipuesto
LIS OBSERVER
12 LIS OBSERVER
Living in Leipzig1000 Years Leipzig – Anniversary Highlights 2015
Stärk, Vjom; zsooofija/Fotolia.com; LIS; Andreas Schmidt/
LTM
administration
parents
hort
early childhood
primary school secondary school
staff events Color scheme – every colour reperesents a section of our school.
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25 years after German Reunification, Leipzig counts among the most dynamic and popular city destinations in Germany, if not Europe. The East German commercial and cultural city, whose citizens paved the way for the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 with their Monday peace prayers in St. Nicholas Church and subsequent demonstrations, will be commemorating several major anniversaries in 2015: Under the motto ‘We are the city’, Leipzig celebrates the 1000th anniversary of its first documented mention. There are even more anniversaries, for the St Nicholas Church, and Leipzig’s Trade Fairs both celebrate 850 years, and the Central Station arrives at its 100th birthday. At the same time, the Leipzig Museum of Printing will dedicate a special exhibition to another anniversary: ‘500 Years of Printing and Publishing in the City of Leipzig’ (March 27th to April 10th).On 10th January 2015, Spinnerei Leipzig – formerly a cotton mill, now home to Leipzig’s top galleries and more than one hundred artist studios – opened the new art year with its traditional winter gallery tour. In turn many other galleries and exhibition spaces have opened new exhibitions. The spring and autumn gallery tours are scheduled for May (1st and 2nd) and September (12th and 13th). From 1st March through 25th May, Leipzig’s Museum of Fine Arts will present the
exhibition ‘Paul Klee. Special Class – Not for Sale’. Klee is counted among the most important representatives of Classical Modern Art. He used the designation ‘Special Class. Not for Sale’ to reserve over 300 of his original works for his legacy collection, removing them from the market. For the first time, more than 100 of these works will be on display in Leipzig.Over the centuries, Leipzig has given momentum to change in history time and again. The anniversary year will display the city’s characteristic diversity with a total of three festival weeks and numerous events, connecting the city’s history to the potential of the present and the future. The central highlight in the anniversary year is the Festival Week from 31st May to 7th June with the ‘Lipsia’s Lions’ Street Theatre Festival and the Leipzig City Festival. Two more festival weeks are dedicated to the jubilees ‘850 years St. Nicholas Church’ (May 17th to 24th) and ‘850 years Leipzig Trade Fairs’ (June
27th to July 5th).The Leipzig Museum of City History’s
highlight will be its ambitious exhibition ‘1015. Leipzig from the beginning’ (20th May to 25th October). Under the banner ‘So glorious you stand, dear city!’, the Leipzig Bachfest (12th to 21st June) sets off on a
daring musical journey through the last millennium, at a flying pace. After all, Leipzig boasts a unique musical heritage of famous composers and is known as Germany’s secret music capital. Since 2012, the Leipzig Music Trail (‘Leipziger Notenspur’) has connected 23 of the most significant authentic sites in the city centre. After the 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner’s birth in 2013, Leipzig Opera will again host a Wagner Festival (22nd to 31st May) to honour the city’s famous son. Its focus will be on repertoire works, among them a concert version of ‘Tannhäuser’ and a symposium. The Gewandhaus Orchestra can be heard performing under the summer skies on 10th and 11th July in the Leipzig Rosental during the popular open air concert ‘Klassik Airleben’.On 20 December 2015, the date commemorating the first documented mention of Leipzig, the festival year will be officially concluded. All citizens and guests of the city are cordially invited to Augustusplatz, where the centerpiece of an exciting day will be the cutting of a gran 1000-candle birthday cake.For further information please contact: Leipzig Tourismus und Marketing GmbH, Tourist-Information, Katharinenstr. 8, 04109 Leipzig, Email:
