A school says welcome: Ukrainians get to know German and education
Created: 05/28/2022, 09:00
By: Susanne Weiss
A welcome change: in one game, the girls and boys from the Ukraine are supposed to keep the ball up.
Mediator Tanja Schwarz (back, right) and Olga Kaliankina (back, left) look after the six to ten-year-olds in the welcome class at the Karl Lederer elementary school.
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Ukrainian children get to know German and pedagogy in their own class.
A visit to the welcome group at the Karl Lederer elementary school.
Geretsried – The Karl Lederer elementary school is used to taking in children from other nations who speak little or no German.
But this time there is a problem.
"For the parents, the children and us," says Rector Elke Goymann.
Nobody knows how long the families from Ukraine will stay in Geretsried, in Germany.
That is why the government has set up welcome classes (see box below).
One of the twelve in the district is at the Karl Lederer elementary school.
Who comes and goes cannot be planned
Nobody had any experience with such a group.
"We have come up with a concept with lessons in German as a second language and rituals that ensure fixed structures," explains Goymann.
It's a coming and going in the welcome class.
Only five of the children who were there when it started after Easter are still there.
Two have already returned to Ukraine.
New children keep coming.
13 young Ukrainians are currently registered at the Karl Lederer Elementary School.
On this morning five girls and six boys between the ages of six and ten practice verbs.
Pictures of the activity hang on the blackboard, with the appropriate words underneath, such as “read”, “write” or “play”.
The students also got to know nouns in this way.
"We want to slowly get to the point of forming complete sentences," explains Tanja Schwarz.
The mediator and coach already knows the Geretsried school because she offers conflict resolution to the adolescents there every week.
That's how she got the job in the welcome class.
She alternates with Petra Lug, who teaches German as a second language (DaZ), and Tanja Brinkmann from TuS Geretsried, who does sports with the children.
Coaches from the Startchance Foundation help to repeat what has been learned.
Also part of the team are an integration assistant, a special education teacher, a remedial teacher and Olga Kaliankina, who is currently doing a voluntary social year (FSJ) at the youth and social work association.
The latter is in the welcome class this morning with Tanja Schwarz.
FSJlerin from Ukraine helps with the translation
After the break, the mediator, the calming influence in the room, wants to play with the girls and boys.
Learning is exhausting for children.
"We want to pick them up, bring them together, welcome them." Schwarz pulls a sheet with a hole in the middle out of a pocket and holds a ball in the air.
Have the children maneuver it around in a circle over the fabric without it falling off.
"How many laps can we do?" she asks.
Olga Kaliankina translates, the students answer "30" in Ukrainian, which the 18-year-old in turn passes on to Schwarz.
Olga Kaliankina, with curly hair and a ring in her nose, is Ukrainian but not a war refugee.
The 18-year-old moved to Germany with her mother and sister three years ago.
She comes from near Kharkiv.
During the Corona period, she mainly learned the language in distance classes.
"The fact that my stepfather only speaks German also helped a lot," says the FSJ student.
Being able to help the children from their homeland during this difficult time is "simply perfect".
But she doesn't want to translate too much.
"I have to learn German and so do the children," says Kaliankina and laughs.
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In the meantime, the girls and boys have mastered the group exercise.
Until they are picked up by their parents, the girls Olena and Galina, both with blond pigtails and a pink T-shirt, play with a pen that reads learning material from an exercise book.
A group around Pavlo, a tall boy, sits down at a round table with the card game UNO.
Vova and Nikita are lounging in the corner bean bags with a book.
There is a blackboard and a desk in the welcome class room.
But in addition to the classic school desks, the children also have alternative seating.
"It wasn't supposed to be just a classroom, but also comfortable," explains Goymann after school.
The rector emphasizes that she is very grateful that the city has refurbished the classroom.
"It was previously an additional room for lunchtime supervision." For the door decoration, the children traced their hands onto construction paper, cut them out and wrote their names on them.
"They had all the colors to choose from," says Schwarz.
They only used blue and yellow - the Ukrainian national colors.
Each child should be encouraged individually
Attending the Welcome Class is voluntary.
Children only have to go to school after a three-month stay in Germany.
"I have the impression that the children like going here," says Goymann.
Tanja Schwarz also observes that the children have become more open in recent weeks.
"Having a structure is good for them," says the mediator.
The DaZ homework is also being done more and more reliably.
For two days, the Ukrainian students attend the regular class in their respective grades by the hour.
"Depending on how it suits the individual children," reports Goymann.
The learning level of the adolescents is very different, adds Schwarz.
"Some children only write in Cyrillic, some can already read our script." But: "Everyone is doing really well, considering the circumstances under which they arrived here."
The situation is just as challenging for the school family.
A total of 480 girls and boys attend the facility on Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Strasse.
In addition to the Ukrainians, six children of former local staff from Afghanistan have recently arrived.
They were integrated directly into their classes, they are taken out for the DaZ lessons.
You will most likely stay in Germany.
Nobody knows about the Ukrainians.
But they should at least feel welcome.
Suzanne Weiss
You can read all further information on the Ukraine war and its effects in Bavaria here on our Ukraine refugees topic page.
Keyword: welcome class
According to the framework concept of the Ministry of Education, welcome classes or pedagogical welcome groups should enable the children and young people who have fled the Ukraine to settle in well at the Bavarian schools.
The aim is to convey a sense of security and security and to give the adolescents the opportunity to get to know everyday school life in their country of arrival.
In addition, the wish of many Ukrainian families should be met that their children can maintain the connection with their Ukrainian homeland in the country of arrival.
The first pedagogical welcome group in the district was at the elementary school in Kochel am See.
According to the district office, it was “just very minimized due to the large fluctuation.
They are currently visiting seven children.
In addition to the offer at the Karl Lederer School in Geretsried, there are two classes at the Lettenholz School in Bad Tölz with a total of 28 children and one in Wolfratshausen with 16 primary school children.
At secondary level 1, 15 Ukrainians attend the Benediktbeuern middle school, 18 are at the middle school in Waldram, 31 at the Realschule Bad Tölz (two welcome classes) and 37 at the Geretsried high school (three welcome classes).
This means that 165 children and young people are cared for in twelve educational welcome groups in the district.
According to the district office, there is also a new German class with 15 students at the Bad Tölz vocational school, which is comparable to an educational welcome group.
31 at the Realschule Bad Tölz (two welcome classes) and 37 at the Gymnasium Geretsried (three welcome classes).
This means that 165 children and young people are cared for in twelve educational welcome groups in the district.
According to the district office, there is also a new German class with 15 students at the Bad Tölz vocational school, which is comparable to an educational welcome group.
31 at the Realschule Bad Tölz (two welcome classes) and 37 at the Gymnasium Geretsried (three welcome classes).
This means that 165 children and young people are cared for in twelve educational welcome groups in the district.
According to the district office, there is also a new German class with 15 students at the Bad Tölz vocational school, which is comparable to an educational welcome group.