2_1_DiscoverGermany_May 2015_Issue26:Scan Magazine 1
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Discover Germany | Top Boarding Schools | Germany
Main image: Students can also learn in the park-like gardens. Right from top: Art is one of the schools’ main focal points. Numerous leisure activities also include a sailing club. Professional golf classes.
The individual route to success As one of Europe’s biggest, church-based private schools with boarding facilities, it is the character and the educational approach of Königsfeld’s Zinzendorfschulen that sets them apart. Combining nine school types under one roof, the school focuses on intensive cooperation, social commitment, team spirit and the fostering of individual strengths. TEXT: NANE STEINHOFF | PHOTOS: ZINZENDORFSCHULEN
“We offer the correct educational path to suit an individual’s current situation. There are no dead ends,” says headmaster Johannes Treude. Freedom to choose between the individual types of schools means that everyone can achieve their ideal qualification. Their broad spectrum of general academic and vocational qualifications ranges from ‘Abitur’, ‘Mittlere Reife’ or ‘Hauptschulabschluss’[school leaving certificate] to training courses in the technical college for social education and social services. Boarders study in a learning campus with specialist teachers as constant contact persons. “This enables individual, structured and therefore successful learning,” Johannes Treude expands. Personal and social education and development comes in the shape of the various creative subjects,
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which include art, natural sciences, languages, economy and education. Even though the school types are different, all the students are considered part of one community. Intensive cooperation with the teachers creates an atmosphere in which students can maximise their full potential. Extracurricular activities and school events aren’t limited to students from specific schools, but are open to everyone. Putting a special emphasis on mutual respect, the students help each other and learn to cooperate. Students from senior classes are rewarded for teaching pupils from the elementary level and prospective educators can organise recreational programmes for fifth-graders, to name just one example. A wide range of extracurricular activities in-
cludes basketball, sailing, horse-riding, bread baking, golf, drama and music lessons. The attractive campus grounds with sprawling parkland are ideal for recreation. Various school and boarding buildings are a mix of listed architecture and modern facilities. A well considered, state-of-the-art media library and active boards in the classrooms facilitate learning. “We want our students to become self-confident, independent, tolerant, compassionate, open-minded, eager and motivated humans,” Johannes Treude explains. These characteristics are further developed from the fifth grade onwards when every student has the chance to sing in the choir or play in the orchestra. Being part of the theatre supports the personal development. Independent learning is systematically practiced from the elementary level. After all, the Zinzendorfschulen follow the important principle of its eponym Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf:“One shouldn’t make copies out of children, but rather let nature take its course.” www.zinzendorfschulen.de