STÄDTISCHE REALSCHULE WALTROP

Address: Zeigeleistr. 31, Post code: 45731, Waltrop, DEA - Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
Website: http://realschule-waltrop.de/
Telephone: +4923097831870 / +4923097831872
Fax: +4923097831877
Type of organisation: School/Institute/Educational centre – General education (secondary level)

Organisation presentation
Realschule Waltrop is a bilingual school (English) that has 675 students taught by 45 teachers. The school has two main profiles: It is "Europaschule" and "Schule ohne Rassismus - Schule Mit Courage". The school puts big emphasis on school project work, above all in the fields mentioned above. It cooperates with a big number of extern partners that either come into the school or else students go out and gain experience by visiting firms/institutions/partners. Vocational training also plays a big role in school life. Value education is an integral part of work: respect, responsibility, appreciation and civil courage are central values that school life is based on. The students live in accordance with our "principle of the helping hands". This means that students help each other in a special tutoring system: our "learning coaches" are the pivot, older students coach younger students in a number of lessons. In addition we have media scouts, sport tutors, first aid tutors, bistro and break assistants, computing tutors for senior citizens. Other important aspects: democracy education, individual tutoring programmes and lessons in all grades, training programmes to develop social skills, method competence, self organization skills. In the field of teaching/learning we follow new paths, cf below. The school is located in Waltrop, a town of 35000 inhabitants, near the towns of Dortmund and Münster. The percentage of migrants is only 4%, but we now have a growing number of refugee children.

Activities and projects of organisation relevant for project
Our teachers deal with the issues of migration and the recent wave of migration in their lessons in various subjects in order to broaden the students` horizons on the matter and to prevent racism and intolerance among youth. They aim at developing social, civic and intercultural competences. Our country is now facing a huge wave of immigration. Germany is coping at the moment with a great amount of people who make their way into German society. Behind this background and down to the fact that big numbers of refugee students need integration and participation we feel especially obliged to be coordinating school. Democracy education is a vital part of our school`s programme. We have extensive experience in standing up for democratic values. As a "School Without Racism - School With Courage" we do big projects that are prepared for at least 6 months together with hundreds of students each before they are presented in the school or in public space or in municipal buildings. In the last years big projects were done with hundreds of students each and involving our local community: "Gegen Rechts - für Demokratie" (2012), "Gegen das Vergessen, für die Zukunft. Mensch sein" (2013), "Über den Tellerrand schauen" (2014), "Weltoffen und bunt - Realschule Waltrop zeigt Flagge gegen demokratiefeindliche Strömungen" (2015), "Demokratie, unsere Strategie. Die Realschule Waltrop bewegt sich kreativ gegen Rechts" (2016). Our school brings in experience in these yearly projects of democracy education that have been awarded prizes on the national level. The methods used appeal to the creative abilities of our students. In the field of teaching/learning we follow new paths that we can carry into the new project: personalized learning, individualization of teaching processes; we give enhanced responsibility to students in their own learning processes and have started working on different levels to reach differentiation in level, quantity, time. Cooperative teaching methods are used in all classes. We also have disabled people in our school family, students who are taught in accordance with our inclusion concept as well as adults working in the school`s bistro. The recent wave of migration has brought 700 refugees to Waltrop so far and has an impact both on city life and school life. We now have a group of refugee children from Syria who came to us without a word of German. More and more kids come in each week. We have developed a school concept with a focus on social inclusion and teaching German as a foreign language. Our teachers visit special seminars to improve their teaching competences and general skills. We now realize that value education has paid out: our students accept their fellow students with a lot of respect, helpfulness, responsibility and creative ideas on how to improve the refugees`situation. Our "Schülermitverwaltung" has collected ideas on how to assist refugees and they have started putting their ideas into practice. As a "European School" we have gained a lot of experience in all relevant fields: bilingual teaching, a European curriculum, international projects like two Comenius projects, school partnerships, international work experiences, project days in all grades. The project will be coordinated by a group of teachers and the principal who are all responsible for the European department and who have gained wide experience. The students of grade 9 and 10 working in the school`s own travel agency (Schülerfirma) "Hin und Weg. Schüler Reisen" will organize and book the bus transfers for the German festival and book the international flights.

Legal representative
Name: Christa Müther
Position: principal
E-mail: sekretariat@realschule-waltrop.de
Phone: 02309 7831872

Contact person
Name: Bärbel Semjatova
Position: teacher (department: languages)
E-mail: sekretariat@realschule-waltrop.de
Phone: 02309 7831870