Things worth knowing about the start of school in Gerolzhofen and the surrounding area

School starts again on Tuesday, September 10th: Getting used to school life means a lot of chaos for parents and students, especially in the first week of school. Everything is still new for first-graders and their parents. What do you need to know about starting school?

Constitutional quarter hour across all school types

A new feature from the next school year is the constitutional quarter hour: students will spend 15 minutes a week studying the Basic Law and basic rights, the Ministry of Education announced. In secondary schools, this applies to the sixth and eighth grades, and in high schools, also to the eleventh grade. In primary schools, the new feature affects the second and fourth grades.

Gerolzhofen Primary School

The Gerolzhofen primary school reports four first classes with 22 students each for the locations in Gerolzhofen and Oberschwarzach. A total of 352 girls and boys attended the school this school year (previous year: 359). There are four classes in all four grades. The number of teachers covers all classes, according to the school.

Kolitzheim Primary School

242 pupils are attending Kolitzheim primary school in the new school year. According to the school, that is 20 more than last year. The increase is due to the particular size of the year group. An additional class must now be set up for this. However, there are enough teachers available.

On Tuesday, classes for second to fourth graders usually begin at 7:40 a.m. in Stammheim and at 8 a.m. in Herlheim and Zeilitzheim. The first graders start at 9 a.m. with a church service in Herlheim. Classes last until 11:20 a.m. on this day, and until 11 a.m. in Stammheim.

Primary School “Am Zabelstein”

The “Am Zabelstein” primary school in Traustadt and Sulzheim has 229 pupils in the new school year (previous year: 234). There are two first classes: 1a in Traustadt and 1b in Sulzheim, each with 28 children. The two-hour lessons for the first-graders begin at 8 a.m. in Traustadt and at 8.30 a.m. in Sulzheim.

On the first day, there will be a special bus for the first graders, in which a parent can travel to their hometown for training purposes.

Gerolzhofen Middle School

The Gerolzhofen middle school started with 310 students, about ten more than were registered at the end of the last school year, reports headmaster André Krauß. At the start of the 2023/24 school year, there were 304 students. Classes end on Tuesday at 11:15 a.m.

According to Krauß, the number of teachers is sufficient. Last school year, this was also the case at the start of the school year in the fall. “However, if teachers drop out or are absent during the school year, no mobile reserves can be expected. Then it will be difficult.” In the last school year, student assistants were added from the halfway point onwards, “who mostly did a good job,” says the principal.

The four towers of the school building were painted during the holidays. The auditorium is to follow next year. Furthermore, a video surveillance system was installed during the holidays because of several attempted break-ins and break-ins outside, reports Krauß.

Ludwig-Derleth-Realschule Gerolzhofen

“Overall, we are in a good position,” says Elisabeth Grimanelis, the headmistress of the Ludwig-Derleth secondary school in Gerolzhofen. This year, there are slightly more students attending the school than last year. This is due to an unusually high number of students changing schools. Many are coming to the secondary school from high school in particular. Overall, however, the number of students is stable at around 500.

On the first day of school, classes begin at 7:55 a.m. for grades six to ten and at 8:30 a.m. for grade five. Classes end at 11:15 a.m. for everyone.

Thanks to the integrated teacher reserve at secondary schools, there are generally enough teachers available. This concept enables schools to use a teacher from the same school location to cover for a class if classes are cancelled. This means that an additional 46 hours per week are available at the secondary school in Gerolzhofen, which also enables an expansion of the range of elective subjects on offer.

Grimanelis finds the newly introduced constitutional quarter hour for democratic education “incredibly important”. The implementation, she says, can be planned by each school itself. At her secondary school, for example, two individual lessons take place at the beginning of the school year.

In addition, the digitalization of their school will continue in the coming school year. 19 of 21 classes are already using iPads as digital work devices in class. At the Gerolzhofen secondary school, students no longer have the option of analog learning with a pen and notebook. According to Grimanelis, however, this is not a problem for students and parents, who are very accommodating to digital learning. Each student will receive 350 euros in funding from the Free State to purchase a tablet, says Grimanelis.

However, according to research by this editorial team, this is unlikely to be enough for the complete equipment. Manufacturer Apple charges around 820 euros for a normal-sized tablet with only 64 gigabytes of storage space, an older generation pen and keyboard.

Grimanelis also says that the school has a new vice principal, Bianca Webert, starting this school year.

Gerolzhofen High School

According to its director, Martin Reisinger, the high school in Gerolzhofen, which is a branch of the Franken-Landschulheim Schloss Gaibach, will have around 260 students in the 2024/25 school year. Last school year, there were 273. With the exception of teachers of Protestant religion, all positions in the teaching staff were filled, Reisinger said.

Classes on the first day of school run from 7:55 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. The headmaster mentions new features such as improved waste separation (keyword: environmental school), an expansion of digital communication with parents and a new IT infrastructure, such as WiFi, PCs and iPads. There is also now a book exchange shelf, a sofa corner with a playable grand piano and a quiet work room with height-adjustable desks for teachers.