Start > Network > Schools and Start-Ups
Jenzigweg 37
07749 JENA
Deutschland
Tel.: +49 (0) 3641.880.050
Fax: +49 (0) 3641.880.059
info(at)leonardo-jena.de
www.leonardo-jena.de
Name of contact person: Arno Lange
Year founded: 2007
Number of students: currently 45 with plans to grow to approx. 200
Age range of students: currently 10 – 13; from August 2010 with primary school: 6-14; eventually 6 – 18 (plan is for a schools with class 1 to 13)
Number of staff: 4 full time, 6 part time – will grow with the number of students
Type of funding (government/private): private (with support from the AWO, “Arbeiterwohlfahrt” ≈ workers welfare, a traditional social organisation in Germany that has been in existence 90 years) – We are the first school in that organisation.
As much as possible individual decisions in learning and working together.
Inspired from “Institut Beatenberg” (CH), Sands and Summerhill (UK), IDEC (especially Yaacov Hecht and David Gribble), John Dewey (project learning), modern learning theorists as Gerald Hüther, the climate of respecting the children, that we observed in Finland, …
Decisions are made in (daily) class meetings and in the school meeting (weekly), as well as by the “Schulkonferenz”, which includes parents, students and teachers, the teachers’ conference and the head teacher.
Conflict resolution is handled by “Streitschlichter” (student mediators) and the justice committee, made up of students and teachers.
Learning in traditional lessons (≈ 1/3 for maths, English, German, French) “Learning office” (≈ 1/3; this “Lernbüro” is where self-directed learning takes place, where the students can decide what, where, how and with whom they want to learn … the only rule is that activities can’t disturb others); Project learning (≈ 1/3, cooperative learning, students set their own learning focus)
We are trying to achieve a balance between the state curriculum and self-directed learning.
There are no marks up to and including class 8. Academic performance is recorded in the form of a “Kompetenzraster” (list of competences, as used by Beatenberg in Switzlerland).