School partnerships

A deepened relationship to people in other countries and cultures is a life long treasure. It is always worth while to make the effort to get into contact and form a partnership with a school abroad. Pupils, teachers and parents usually return from a visit to a partner school with many new experiences and a new view on everyday life and even sometimes with new friends. We can warmly recommend to you Waldorf Schools or other institutions that are seeking partnerships.

To give you some ideas about school partnerships here are a few reports that we have already received. We would also be very pleased to receive reports of your partnership and, if you give your permission, we would like to make them available to others on this homepage.

Overview

England: York (see below) - WS Heilbronn, class 8.
Romania: Rosia - WS Weimar, class 10, survey practical.
Moldavia: Kishinew (see below) - WS Bad Nauheim.
Ukraine and Russia (see below) - WS Schwäbisch Hall.
Russia: Moskow - WS Bremen, class 10.
China - WS Marburg.
Japan: Tokyo - WS Berlin, Märkisches Viertel ("Berlin-Tokyo-Berlin" and "Nibelungen and Faust in Tokio").

Trips of teachers

Reports of some adventurous trips by teachers to...
Latvia - WS Chemnitz
Tadzhikistan - WS Lübeck

More activites

WS Klagenfurt (A) - many European exchange projects.
Wellington (NZL) - class 12 project of a pupil "Help the Goderich Waldorf Schoolin Sierra Leone" .
WS Dresden - Letter contacts world-wide.

England: York

Thirteen years ago I went with my then class 8 on a two week class trip to our partner school in York. Alongside various excursions we made, we helped to restore an overgrown garden, paint the outside of the buildings and erect some work sheds. Some of the class took part in the main lessons in the school. With the class 8 from the York school (we were 39 pupils to their 13!) we did some sport together. The communication proved not to be as easy, as the pupils expected. Since the York school ends at class 8 there was little opportunity to maintain contact with that class. What contact there was, existed mostly between the adults. Every year one of the York colleagues came to our school and sold things at our Christmas bazaar.  

This year in May I will go again with my present class 8 to York. We will be trying to do some building work in the entrance area of the school. One of the colleagues there will organise everything. We will be camping at a farm some half hour away from the school. The contact with the children at the school will be relatively minimal, since the proportion of pupils will be similar to my last visit and the class 8 pupils in York are somewhat younger than ours. And one should not forget, the children want to do a class trip and are essentially occupied with this.

Why I want to do the trip in spite of the difficulties?
- So that the children can experience that one can speak English and not only learn it in school.
- So that the children can see a little bit more of the world.
- As motivation to raise money beforehand for a meaningful purpose strengthens the sense of belonging together.
- In the hope that some of the children may choose to return to improve their language learning.

Martin Böhm, WS Heilbronn, martinboehm(at)web.de, 2/2007.

Moldavia: Kishinew

A special partnership:  Bad Nauheim – Kishinew (from our Newsletter  9/2004) 

There are many reasons why a class teacher should accompany a pupil exchange and especially with pupils from Moldavia.

As a pupil I was very much interested to find out why the generation of my grandfather was willing to shoot at our French neighbours. An exchange with French pupils helped me to form the intention never to engage in such a conflict with neighbours and this had significant consequences for my biography.

We found ourselves until quite recently in a state of ‚cold war’ with our eastern neighbours. Even up until the 80’s our government pointed nuclear weapons against the countries of the Eastern Block and they did likewise. The countries of our partner classes in those days did not belong to such an enemy system. Exchange occurred rarely with such countries; at least I never had the opportunity to do so. Now the situation has changed and a whole new world has opened up that we may get to know - and without making war.

I wanted my pupils to realise what historical opportunities lie in the possibilities to get to know South and Eastern European people in peace. For that reason I introduced an extra history lesson to explain the origins of the ‘Iron Curtain’ after the end of the Second World War. Many of the children were able to ask their parents and grandparents about the German-German border and unforgettable experiences that are associated with it. I hope they were able to gain better insight into the present situation and thus more interest for the Eastern half of Europe now that it is much easier to reach.

For about a year now there has been a picture of some Moldavian pupils hanging in our classroom. The Moldavian class teacher Mrs Dascal is particularly proud of folk songs and traditional dances and her class 8 performed with these in traditional costume with great skill at our school festival.

Our young people needed almost a year to realise that Moldavian youngsters don’t always dress in traditional costume but dress quite similar to themselves. I have to admit that even as a teacher I had put my Moldavian colleagues into a certain category on the basis of their style of dress. In conversation with them I was always surprised how interesting and worthwhile they were.

There were also other unforgettable experiences:
When 13 from 23 youngsters visit a swimming pool for the first time in their lives and when pupils jump with great enthusiasm from a diving board, who can’t even swim and somehow that turns out alright, then these can be unforgettable moments for the duty teacher and the other pupils.
When the Moldavian pupils react in an unreflected way to our girls with their bare belly clothing, then interesting discussions can ensue.
There are many such impressive memories.

We all had to be very flexible during the week of the exchange visit. One has to deal with other attitudes and temperaments, not to mention a fairly significant language barrier. Even the programme, which we had planned months in advance, proved unsuited to the weather and the weary visitors. Many parents were able to adapt spontaneously - for which many thanks.

We spent a week together with people who are quite different to those we know. We had the chance to be more spontaneous, opener, more tolerant and generous and one could learn a great deal. I hope all have been able to learn something from this experience.

Uwe Mos, WS Bad Nauheim, 9/2004.

Ukraine and Russia

Bright eyes and tearful farewells ... (from our Newsletter 3/2005)

How often have we teachers and parents of the Waldorf School in Schwäbisch Hall been amazed to see our youngsters bid farewell to our partner school visitors after a mere two weeks with tears in their eyes. And how often do our pupils report with gleaming eyes after a two month visit how strange and yet how beautiful and hearty Eastern Europe is. 

Nine years ago when I was given the task as a new teacher to establish Russian teaching in our school I said to myself, “I can tell them wonderful things about Russia for hours but they still won’t love it! They have to experience the country and the Russian people.” Today we have regular contact with three Waldorf schools, one in Moscow, ‘Semejnyj lad’, one in St Petersburg, ‘V Datschnom’ and one in Odessa ‘Stupeni’ (in the Ukraine). Each exchange is different, yet has the same goal.

The „Stupeni“ School became almost a second home for over 50 pupils. They all spent a ten week language exchange either alone or with another pupil, and it is always a remarkable to experience them when they return. We also receive pupils from Odessa. Thus we engage in a regular pedagogical exchange, visiting each other’s lessons, giving advice on the subject of self-administration (even though our schools are so different) and carrying out joint projects, are important parts of these partnerships.

Cultural trips are our regular meetings with St Petersburg, which the Robert Breuning Foundation and the School Ministry in Stuttgart helps to fund and involve groups of around twenty people. Thus it is possible every other year to wonder at this great Russian city and in alternate years our Russian guests are able to enjoy German culture in turn. The story of our historical relations however does not make such a happy tale.

In Moscow the extreme social problems cannot be ignored. That is why we emphasise the social practical in our dealings with the „Semejnyj lad“ school. Our students visit a hospital for children suffering from cancer, have meals with the homeless, look after handicapped children. 

Now and then we were able to make modest financial gifts to the schools. Even just surviving is sometimes a heroic deed in Russia.

Levon Babaliants, WS Schwäbisch Hall, 3/2005.