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Welcome to the Anne-Frank-Realschule in Ahaus

You`ll soon find out that Ahaus is in the north of Germany about 150km north of Cologne and very close to the Dutch border and that Ahaus belongs to North-Rhine Westphalia. It is a lovely town with about 36.000 inhabitants. It`s a minor centre of a rural area where cattle are bred and pigs are fattened.

There is also some industry in Ahaus, where various things are produced. The original branches of traditional industry have mostly disappeared. Ahaus used to be a centre of textile and timber industry. Nowadays tools, machinery and software are produced. Ahaus also has an important construction industry. Additionally lots of jobs focus on providing services

The School System

Ahaus itself is a city with many schools, there are 2 schools for handicapped children and children with special needs, 6 primary schools, 2 grammar schools, 2 basic schools, 2 Realschulen, technical schools and vocational schools and 4 colleges of further education which cooperate with local companies.

In North-Rhine Westphalia pupils start primary school at the age of 6, they stay at this school for 4 years. Then the parents decide which school their child is going to attend then. In this decision the parents are advised by the teachers who know the child well and who have taught him or her during these first 4 years.

Of course there are comprehensive schools in NRW, but more often you`ll find a school system consisting of three different types of school. A kind of basic school for averagely talented pupils, perhaps the English secondary modern school represents this type of school best. There is a Grammar school for those who are quite clever and wish to go to university after having finished school and the Realschule which is chosen by those pupils who are somewhere in between.

These pupils mostly want to find jobs as bank-clerks or insurance-clerks, they want to become an administrative assistant or they want to become an office worker in a firm. Many students also choose jobs in social areas. Because of the serious job situation there is a strong tendency to attend one of the various colleges of further education and study for an A-level exam or a comparable degree.

But the school system in North-Rhine Westphalia is changing. Students used to go home after school at one o’clock and do their homework in the afternoon. Because of various reasons more and more schools offer a full time school attendance. The students at AFR have lessons on two afternoons and those children whose parents are at work in the afternoon can stay at school until 3.30.

School Management

Advisory teachers: Anne Schwanekamp and Werner Fischer

Responsible

for students` exchanges

• with France: Burkhard Helling and Christel Ruwe
• with the Netherlands: Petra Diekmann
• and for the study visits in England: Thomas Langkowsky.

for Comenius projects: Maria Kuhn

for bilingual classes: Dagmar Winkelhaus and Maria Kuhn

for the organization of sports events: Wolfgang Witthake

Teaching Staff

The teaching staff consists of 50 teachers, 3o female and 20 male teachers.

The cooperation and teamwork among the staff are supported by a number of voluntary activities. There is a group of teachers playing volleyball, other teachers meet at a workshop, where pedagogical problems are discussed. There are outings, which are organized once a year, and several other activities like singing and playing music together, having tea or coffee.

Teachers cooperate by planning lessons and preparing and correcting tests.

Pupils

The Anne Frank Realschule, which is financed by the city of Ahaus, is a state school for boys and girls. It was founded in 1977.

The pupils come from the city of Ahaus and from the surrounding villages such as Schoeppingen, Legden and Heek.

This term 800 pupils attend the school.

Beyond the normal timetable students have the possibility to remain at school until the late afternoon. They are helped with their homework and are offered a wide range of free time activities. They are supervised by adults, trained in education, and older schoolmates.

Anne Frank

The school follows Christian occidental traditions as these are the background to the western culture, but it also includes multi-cultural aspects especially because it is also attended by Islamic and other non-Christian children.

The pedagogical work and the spirit of the school want to remind us of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl that was persecuted by the German Nazis and had to leave Germany in 1933 for Amsterdam. Anne Frank and her family had to find a hiding-place in Amsterdam when Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands. There the Franks were found by the German secret police, arrested and taken to different concentration camps in Germany. In March 1945 she died in Bergen-Belsen because of malnutrition and typhoid.

Her diary is read in German classes, from time to time parts of it are acted on stage and presented to the pupils and as Ahaus is not too far from Amsterdam classes make trips to her hiding place in Amsterdam.

The school wants its pupils to learn from the terrible fate of Anne Frank that tolerance and understanding towards minorities are essentials of every community. Pupils should also learn to show understanding for other pupils and other people.

It is a part of the school`s curriculum to teach the pupils the terror of Nazi Germany , the persecution of the Jews and other minorities, the Holocaust and the dangers of any totalitarian ideas.

Because of this spirit there is a group of students who do researches about former persecuted Jewish families in Ahaus. They write letters and collect information about these former citizens of Ahaus. There are also exhibitions with pictures, drawn by pupils, and documentations which remind us all of the effects of political persecution and dictatorship.

Subjects taught at the Anne Frank Realschule

School starts at 7.45am and finishes mostly at 1.00pm. Each lesson lasts 45 minutes and there are two breaks of 15-20 minutes. When there are lessons in the afternoon, there is a lunch break of 45 minutes and then the pupils have two more lessons until 15.15.

The following subjects are taught in form 5 to 7:

Religious Education (2), German (4-5), Maths (4-5), English (4-5), Art (1-2), Music (1), Textiles (1-2), Physical Education (2-3), History (starting in year 6 with 1-2 lessons), Geography (1-2), Politics (1-2), Biology (1-2), Physics (1-2), Chemistry (starting in year 7 with 1-2 lessons a week).

In year 6 pupils learn French or Dutch as their second language and do 3 lessons a week.

Students of year 8 - 10 are taught the following subjects:

R.E. (2), German (4), History (1-2), Geography (1-2), Politics (1-2), Mathematics (4), English (4), Physics (1-2), Chemistry (1-2), Biology (1-2), Art, Music, Needle work (1-2), P.E. (2-3), and the students choose an elective subject with 4 lessons a week. They have a choice between French, Dutch, Biology, Social Studies and Technics.

There are another two lessons a week that can be chosen by students. Here they can decide if they want to play games, learn something about acting, do cookery or computer sciences, play in the school band or if they want to do some extra English, German or Maths. They can also learn Italian. In these workshops pupils are also offered to learn how to make good video films.

Pupils as young European citizens

Understanding Europe and the European Union is a very important aspect of the work at the Anne Frank Realschule. The pupils should learn that they are a part of the European Union and that European nations are growing closer together.

They should learn to appreciate the great cultural variety which can be experienced within Europe. Political decisions must be seen on a European level because we think that developing a common European standard of living and economy will be the pupils` future. They will be European citizens some day.

So the pupils of the Anne Frank Realschule should learn a lot about the different European nations, about each nation`s own unique geography, natural environment, cultural life, economy, politics and society.

This is why teachers and pupils of the Anne Frank Realschule are interested in developing and maintaining contacts and perhaps students` exchanges with other European nations.

Because of the different languages spoken in Europe it is easiest for the pupils of the Anne Frank Realschule to communicate with English speaking pupils. Any school which is interested in setting up a students` exchange or working for a ‘Comenius` project is welcome to contact the school.

 Sports

The Anne Frank School takes part in various school competitions. There are school teams in football (boys and girls), handball, tennis, table tennis and badminton.

Address

Anne Frank Realschule

Fuistingstrasse 10

D - 48683 Ahaus

Germany

Phone number: 0049 2561 95120

Fax number: 0049 2561 951215

E-mail: post@afr-ahaus.de