International School of Munich (MIS)

www.mis-munich.de

Another 6 am start! If ever you need a very quick ‘wake up’ ride try driving from Oberstaufen to Munich in the rain with the work traffic. Some would call it exhilarating, others would say it was stupidity; for me it was a necessary step in getting to Munich International School about 2.5 hours away from where we are staying for the week.

Garmin managed to get us right to the school car park without any detours. Upon entering the car park and faced with the constant flow of cars and buses you could be forgiven for thinking you had arrived at a transfer station. However, upon closer examination we could see there was a circuit that buses followed as they let children for MIS off. Parents drew up in the huge and well laid out car park, parked their cars and either accompanied their children through the underground tunnel to the school or let them walk to 250 m or so by themselves. When we arrived just on 9 am the car park was about 60% full of cars – many I guess were staff.

Before entering the school grounds I surrendered my passport to the security station in return for a visitor’s tag to wear while I was on site.

I had a brief meeting with the Head of School, Dr Mary Seppala, before being introduced to Junior School Principal Gary Langenhuizen who hosted me so well for the morning. Gary is from the USA and is in his first year as principal.

MIS offers all three programmes accredited by the International Baccalaureate Organisation – Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme and the Diploma Programme. The school is a non profit educational primary and secondary day school for children aged 4-5 years through Grade 12 with English as the language of instruction. 1300 children from almost 50 countries attend the school. The school is set on 26 acres and consists of a Junior School (Early Childhood – Grade 4), a Middle school (Grades 5-8) and a senior school (Grades 9-12) and is located in Starnberg, approximately 20 km south of Munich.

The philosophy of the school incorporates student centred inquiry based learning and an appreciation of what it means to be part of a global community.

There are five classes at each grade level with maximum class sizes around 20-23 although some flexibility is exercised dependent upon circumstances. Each classroom has a teacher and a classroom teaching assistant making the climate in the classroom something many NZ teachers would envy. Resourcing the curriculum is not an issue with teachers having almost anything they need in order to implement the agreed programme. Every classroom has a data projector and screen and every teacher has a lap top.

The goals and aspirations held for learners are well displayed in all areas of the school. Classrooms are light, bright and replete with brilliant displays of children’s learning. The school offers several specialist services including guidance counsellors, a nurse, a full time professional learning coordinator, ESL support, learning support, mother tongue programme, art and physical education.

The Junior School shares some facilities such as, the gymnasium and some sports fields with the Middle and Secondary School.

Children assist with the development and maintenance of the school garden plot complete with orchard.

The school provides and extensive bus system to ensure students can attend the school. It offers 90 different bus routes with more than 700 stops. Students can also access a wide variety of food items at the school cafeteria.

Frankfurt International (FIS)

www.fis.edu

[Entrance to the FIS Primary School]

I had the pleasure of visiting with the principal of the Elementary School of FIS, Peter Baker, formerly principal at Enner Glynn School, Nelson. FIS is run by a not-for-profit board, the significance of this is that any surplus funds are reinvested in the school and do not go to shareholders. The school is registered to teach the International Baccalaureate Primary Years and Diploma Programmes. It is also accredited by the European Council of International Schools and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges - no wonder it is the international school of choice in Frankfurt; there are several other international schools.

A familiar routine for me has been to check in with the school’s security staff at their office, swap a form of identification for a visitor badge and accompany an officer to the elementary school office. The reverse occurs at the end of the day. I noted that parents advancing beyond the front gate are also required to wear a visitor badge.

FIS is three schools on one campus; the primary campus caters for 250 children from 3 – 6 years of age. Peter is principal of the Elementary school, 460 children who make up grades 2-5. The Head of School is Mark Ulfers; the whole school has about 1800 children. The school is made up of children from many different cultures (USA, Germany, Korea, UK, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, India, Canada and Italy) and its’ staff is also drawn from an international pool of teachers - several of whom are New Zealand and Australians.

FIS has a second campus located in Wiesbaden (300 children) also located outside of Frankfurt.

[Astroturf type surface for the field - very impressive]

Leadership at FIS believes ‘a well rounded, dynamic and challenging education is the best tool to give young people so that they may meet the diverse and ever-changing challenges of the 21^st century with confidence’. A healthy mix of general classroom teachers and specialists in sport, art, music and ICT contribute to fulfilling that belief. The school is very well resourced inside and out with all weather surfaces for field sports; two gymnasiums, specialist drama room, several ICT suites and at least one auditorium. Incidentally class sizes are limited to 20! I know that will interest many people I know.

It costs a lot of money to have a child attend FIS and while the companies of many people contribute in full or part to the costs, there are some people who meet the costs from their own resources.

The day I visited 2 elementary classes were on trips to other parts of Germany and Peter was preparing to visit a class at one venue later in the week. He was also handling introductory/orientation sessions for new board members. All this after recently completing recruitment fairs in the UK and USA.

At the end of the day I watched as a fleet of 8 large buses and many smaller buses transported children home to all parts of the larger Frankfurt area. The school operates ‘the largest private bus service in Germany, making more than 225 stops in the greater Frankfurt/Rhein-Main area’.

[Secondary section of the school in the background]

Wilbur at ANZAC Cove

Wilbur spent an afternoon visiting sites in Gallipoli. Here he is amongst some flowers at ANZAC Cove. Room 3, can you use the internet to find out more about ANZAC Cove?