As you may have noticed, the year seven classes of the SISS as well as the seventh graders of the Haupt- and Realschule went to Sylt, a German island north-west of the mainland, from the 29.05.16 to the 04.06.16. On this trip the students learned how to efficiently work together on one assignment over the course of the week, use their time wisely and plan what they are going to do throughout each day in order to finish the project they had chosen, on time and well.
These projects were presented at school and marked as their last humanities assessment. As well as working on their projects they went on educational trips for example to the Hallig Hooge and to the mud flats. Although the students worked very hard on these projects and learned a lot from the trips, they also got to relax at the beach later in the evenings and interact freely during the day. Many friendships formed between the two schools and between the classes which wouldn’t have occurred without this trip. The SISS writers on behalf of all seventh graders, would like to greatly thank Herrn Platte for inviting us to join the Haupt- and Realschule on this amazing experience!
Hallig Hooge
On Thursday, June second, everyone went to the Hallig Hooge, a neighboring island. They travelled by the boat ‘MS Adler Express’. After spending an hour on the boat the four classes arrived at the island. There they were to have some free time but also to watch a movie about how this island flooded regularly during the year.
The Hallig Hooge is one of the biggest of the ten Halligen. It has an area of 5,78 km2. The students were not able to visit all of the warfts, only the one where the ‘cinema’ was on which showed the movie. This was the Hanswarft. The Hanswarft had a small town on it, which included a soft- ice shop, a restaurant, a cafè, a supermarket and some other houses which can be assumed were normal living houses.
A short questioning of what some of the SISS students thought of this trip and the movie led to these results:
Isabella (7A): “Yes, I liked the trip. The island was nice but the long way there wasn’t worthwhile for the boring 15 minute movie we watched. Also, the movie was in German so some of the kids couldn’t even understand.
Jenny (7B): “Yes, I thought the trip was interesting. The landscape on the island was beautiful as well.
Romain (7A): “It was OK –but quite boring sometimes.”
Olivia (7B): “I thought it was really good. It was probably one of my favorite days out. I liked the independence that we used to spend time with our friends.”
Danny (7B): “The boat trips there and back were fun. But the time in the middle, for example when we watched the movie, was boring. The things, such as food, you could buy on the island, were highly overpriced.”
The text was written by Muriel Heitsch (student of Year 7).
Infusion of cultures (Friendships made along the way)
This excursion was not only about having an educational trip which we could relate the past Humanities lessons to, it was also about blending two groups of children with different backgrounds, lifestyles and languages. On the first day where we were properly introduced, no longer simple playground encounters, the teachers tried to get the International school and the Haupt- and Realschule to bond, with little accomplishment. But once we got to Sylt and had spent a week together, constantly running into one another in the hallway, slowly but surely the two groups started to intervene with each other. Every wave, smile and short chit chat started to form something stronger, friendships that weren’t burdened to die out as soon as the trip was over. With each passing day people got closer, some spending all of the time together whilst some simply had conversations over the course of the day. By the time Saturday was upon us the journey home was very different to the journey there, there was no longer an obvious separation between schools, everybody sat together, our previous feuds left in the past.
The text was written by Olivia Skingsley (student of Year 7).