We have made the decision to take Rhiannon out of her current school. Naturally, this decision hasn't been an easy one to make and has periodically kept me awake at night.
Thankfully, Rhiannon is happy and confident enough to change schools mid-year and her maturity about this makes it all so much simpler.
Why are we changing schools?
Ersatzschule
Back in July last year, we heard from another parent that the school was applying to become an "Ersatzschule" to receive more funding from the German government. This meant that many, if not most of the classes would be taught in German.
We found out about this major change of status too late to do anything about it and decided to continue sending Rhiannon there for the new term while we evaluated the possibilities.
In September the new School Head held a meeting about the Ersatzschule changes. I made notes.
It seems as though the process of change will be slow and won't be completed until 2019. However, the language of tuition will change, but in a staggered way, year group by year group. Ultimately, this would have little immediate effect on Rhiannon but she would need to be fluent in German - both spoken and written - within a year or two. As she is the only native English speaker in her year, and possibly in the whole of the primary school, this would be a tall order.
As yet, the school don't know how many subjects, or which ones, would be taught in German. Information is scarce, and the impartation of this information is pitifully atrocious.
Another reason we were reluctant to change schools last term was that Rhiannon was extremely happy there. But that has slowly changed over the past term.
Class Size
She is in a class of only ten children, when they are all there. While this was fine initially, over time problems have arisen as they only can with ten year olds. And with such a small class, there is nobody else to turn to when friends inevitably fall out. Also, those children have been there for their entire school life and are rather cliquey, not accepting of outsiders who have been to other schools in other countries. And quite frankly, a couple of her classmates are downright peculiar. I feel she needs more variety with her friends. Or more friends, full stop. Sleepovers have dried up completely. It's sad to see her all alone at weekends.
English Language
Another aspect of the small and national school population is that Rhiannon is actually losing her English skills. She's beginning to construct sentences in a similar way to a German speaking English and her vocabulary is diminishing.
English lessons (or Literacy as they're called nowadays) seem to be very basic as you'd expect for students of English as a Second Language. This may not be an accurate assessment, however, as it was vehemently denied at the Parent's Evening last term.
Lack of Learning
Other lessons aren't grabbing her attention at all. For example, her science lesson last week covered exceedingly elementary aspects that Rhiannon learned in Reception year. The only lessons she enjoys are French and German because she's learning new stuff.
Rhiannon never gets homework (which is fabulous, in a way) and we've never seen her school work, so we don't know for sure. But she doesn't seem to be learning anything at all.
The library is minuscule and contains very childish books - apparently.
She's bored.
After School Activities
She badly misses after school activities. For example, she would dearly love to find an Aikido class to join here to continue her favourite sport and reach her black belt. Unfortunately, the current school day is too long for her to do this. It finishes at 4pm and often she doesn't get home until 5pm. After leaving the house at 8am, that's a very long day. And no Aikido classes for children occur in the evening. German schools start very early and finish early, leaving plenty of time for other activities.
The school is too far away from home for her to participate in any of their after school options. Mind you, there aren't many to choose from anyway, and certainly nothing she's interested in.
There's more, but I've rambled on more than long enough already.
We cancelled the contract with the school at the end of December. Rhiannon will remain there until a place is confirmed at another school which may be as soon as the end of this month.
Today we are visiting two international schools. Both are very different from each other. We've already agreed amongst us all which one she will attend but are keeping our options open until we've seen both.
I've been filling in forms galore and sincerely hope the rest of her school days here will be happy and productive.
Wish us luck!