Like Lebenshilfe Starnberg, the Franziskusschule associated with it is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
For the anniversary, the headmistress would like to have another partner class "so that inclusion gains a foothold".
Starnberg
- It was September 9, 1971 when 35 children with intellectual disabilities had their first day of school at the Franziskusschule, the first special school in the Starnberg district. At that time, the facility with day care center and preschool was still in Garatshausen. 103 pupils from the district are now attending the Franziskusschule on the Zeppelin promenade in Starnberg.
The 50th anniversary celebration was a success, the mood was exuberant, reports headmistress Anne-Katrin Rittmeyer-Breu. However, the party had to be a bit smaller, due to the corona only students from middle school were allowed to celebrate. “They were very excited,” reports Rittmeyer-Breu. “In the end we even danced together.” A special highlight was the handover of the Francis Band's anniversary CD, which was distributed to all students. Thomas Vogl also received one of these from the Lions Club Starnberger See Ludwig II., Who in turn surprised the students with a donation of 2000 euros.
When Rector Rittmeyer-Breu reports on the history of the school, she raves about it. Although she has only been there for a year, she knows her way around the creation of schools for people with disabilities: “That was the Sturm und Drang period in the school system,” she says of the time when the school was founded a parents' initiative emerged. There were still no special school curricula, let alone the right to school for people with intellectual disabilities was a matter of course. “The parents made it easy at the time.” It was only gradually that society began to grapple with the question “what are the needs of people with disabilities”.
Of course, a lot has happened at the Franziskusschule in half a century.
The lessons are still very practice-oriented.
In the high phases of the pandemic, however, the students, like their peers at the mainstream school, had to switch to digital learning in homeschooling.
For the future, Anne-Katrin Rittmeyer-Breu hopes that “inclusion will gain a wider foothold”, in very concrete terms.
The Franziskusschule already has two partner classes at the elementary schools in Söcking and Starnberg, and the Rector has plans to contact another partner class at a middle school.
She also hopes through the art projects of the Franziskusschule that her students can “get involved more in society” in order to realize their right to participation.