We were welcomed to Berlin by the Peter Petersen UNESCO school.  This school had always taken the Peter Petersen name but had worked as any other school in Berlin.  It wasn’t until the centenary of the death Peter Petersen in 1984 that the school began to look into its namesake and they realised a change to the way the school ran was required.  Peter Petersen was a former educational reformist who believed in a more holistic approach to education.  He promoted the use of mixed age groups and believed education should evolve around 4 basic principles of conversation, play, celebration and work.

I think schools in Australia actually take on board much of this belief of education, especially in the area of multi age groups. One thing I noticed from this school was the way they could articulate why they choose to group students, rather than Australia where we tend to group students due to numbers in the school.  Here they chose multiage groups of Prep, 1 and 2 and 4,5 & 6 as it helps build self esteem, teaches students to accept and offer help and allows the to take responsibility for their learning and the learning of others. “It is normal to be different” is a mantra at Peter Petersen school.

As students enter school here it is a large celebration, not only at the school but in the homes of new school goers. On the first day of school children wake to a large bag of presents such as cute stationery.  All of the family arrive to wish the child well.  When they arrive at school they are introduced to all of the students in a special celebration.

In the visit to this UNESCO school I can see a lot of similarities to Australia, especially when compared to Copenhagen.  When we had a chance to sit in a Prep/1/2 classroom for a few minutes they were learning about fire and using toy telephones to pretend to call the emergency number.  Students were in groups, the teacher using a smartboard to record ideas.  At this particular school there are 22 different nationalities with 60% of the school’s population from immigrant backgrounds.

Students arrive at school a little earlier than us starting at 8.20am and is started with a 90 minute teaching session.  At 9.50 students have breakfast and this is followed by a 10 minute silent relaxation/reflection time. Another 90 minute block takes them into their second break before school finishes at 2pm unless you are in grade 4/5/6 who will return for an extra session. The upper primary school differs in the sense that students are a lot more independent, choosing what work they are going to do and Monday morning is spent planning when they are going to do their work.

Of course our first school visit is not representative of schools in Germany and I am looking forward to seeing more, especially after hearing more about how the education system works in Germany at the Department of Education.  Germany are very proud of their education system and the low youth unemployment level they have (around 5%).  School begins at age in first grade at 6, similar to Australia but the key difference is that by the time students get to grade 6 they choose whether they will take a vocational or academic track.  From there they head to secondary school suited to their track.  The gymnasium prepares students for university and students sit the Arbitur, a university entrance exam. The Hauptschule prepares students for a vocational future as does the Realschule but with more of an academic focus. After receiving the Realschule certificate, students have many options such as entering the dual system or vocational training.

I look forward to learning more about this system of education.  While at first I shudder at the idea of choosing a child’s future at age 11 it appears  to be working successfully for Germany.