(P) German School of Bucharest: Start of Registration for the coming school year 2013/14 at the DSBU

New registrations for the coming school year 2013/14 have started. Until April 30, 2013 parents can register their children for classes one to eight at the DSBU.

The DSBU, which was founded in 2007 and has been acknowledged and supported by the Department for Foreign Affairs in Germany as a German School Abroad, accepts new students for the coming school year. For those parents, who are interested, a registration form (to be found on our homepage www.dsbu.ro) has to be completed and returned to our Administration office. Our Head of Administration, Mrs. Bocter-Stanciulescu, will set up an appointment with you to talk to our Head of School or Deputy Head and have a look around. All the children of the new first class are invited to the DSBU on May 7, 2013 to get to know their class teacher, Mrs. Brigitte Schreiber, the school building and the new surroundings. Teachers of the DSBU will test the language as well as the motor and cognitive skills of the students that are required in the first grade at school. The children must be able to use scissors and pencils in an appropriate way, to recognize certain objects and numbers from one to ten and to say what these are in German. Additionally they have to copy lines and certain patterns. In General children should have reached the age of six when school starts. As an exception and on the condition that it is pedagogically justified, children at the age of five can be accepted. The guidelines for the acceptance of the children are the standard entrance exams that have been developed in Germany. In a playful way necessary skills for the first grade are being tested. If this has been done successfully, there should not be any difficulty to follow the curriculum of the first grade: reading and writing in German, adding and subtracting up to number twenty, learning a basic vocabulary in English, swimming as part of the sport lessons as well as getting acquainted with certain animals and plants in the subject “Nature, Culture, Man” (MeNuK). The curricula, timetables and learning materials that we use are part of the educational plan of the State of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The regulations are observed strictly and thus students of the DSBU will be able to change schools in case of moving to Germany or to another school abroad. The method of teaching used by DSBU teachers according to the curriculum is “learning holistically”, i.e. learning with your “brain, heart and hand”. Thus the children are valued as integral persons with all their strengths and weaknesses as well as their interests. They are being approached with all their senses and feelings – this is the way children learn best. So lessons by German native speakers are practical, close to real life and activity-oriented. Small and sometimes combined classes help maintain this pedagogical approach and imply a high quality of teaching for the students. Teachers can commit themselves to the individual needs of the children, support them in a special way and watch their development closely. On May 9, 2013 all families of the successfully enrolled first grades are invited to a parents evening at the DSBU. There our pedagogical approach, methods of teaching and the curriculum will be presented. More information about the DSBU can be found on our homepage