Forget everything you've ever known about schools!

Mr. Höfig, would you like to be a student at your school yourself?

MICHAEL HÖFIG: Definitely! I would be happy coming to and from school every day, together with my friends, because I would be learning while at the same time enjoying what I am doing. At Strothoff International School, there is a very special teaching and learning culture that I would really appreciate as a student. It would prepare me for the challenges of the time by empowering me to think for myself, develop creative ideas and work out effective solutions. It would thus equip me with competencies that are already important now but will also become increasingly important in the future.

What do you think these are?

MH: Last school year, we coined three key terms that outline teaching and learning at our school: Creativity - Sustainability, Leadership. Above all, it is the creativity that we humans have ahead of the ever-developing artificial intelligence of machines. We want to teach this at our school, as well as sustainable, resource-conserving thinking and action. The burdens of climate change, which are already becoming more than apparent, will be even more dramatic for future generations. This puts a lot of pressure on today’s young people, which is why we first explore with students how complex the world's problems are, and then we give them the tools they need to seek possible solutions.

In programs like the Compassionate Changemakers & Leadership Lab, the children apply the knowledge they gain in a practical way, learning how to solve global problems at the local level. To this end, we have joined forces with leading European schools to develop the Youth Mayors curriculum, a "young mayors" training course. And in our new Sustainability Action Lab, students deal with environmental issues. The combination of creativity and inquiring minds leads to our BAUHAUS concept. Together with our students we construct the future!

These innovative projects are probably more available to the older students. What do you have to offer the younger students?

MH: We are a private school that offers the International Baccalaureate as a completely continuous program, extending from kindergarten through middle school and all the way up to the diploma program. This is unique in the Rhine-Main area. We pursue a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to education. Some aspects of our BAUHAUS model are already applied to our youngest students in Kindergarten, which was received so positively by families that after just a few months, our kindergarten reached the approved limit of fifty children! This was certainly also due to the character and compassion of our dedicated team. Despite the difficult situation on the labor market, we have succeeded in recruiting two more state-certified educators for our kindergarten. They will support our tandem teams, meaning children will be taught by two educators in tandem, one in German and the other in English. The 3-5-year-olds will learn to easily switch back and forth between the two languages in a playful way, at a native-speaker level. This tandem approach then grows up into Reception, or what used to be preschool.

In first grade, many lessons include problem-solving tasks and projects that encourage student creativity. We don't do projects; our school is the project, so to speak, which is lived by our students. That's why they love coming to school - they can construct something here. Leadership training also comes into play as early as elementary school during the so-called "Units of Inquiry", which encourage students to accept responsibility and take action based on what they have learned. Our elementary students are inspired to think about themselves and their world and solve problems. So forget everything you previously knew about elementary schools: We shape personalities who are creative, responsible, and interculturally competent. Our students are stimulated in the way that PISA has been demanding for decades; our approach coincides with the results of modern brain research.

And is that also reflected in the exam results?

MH: Our students are motivated, not just during their time at school, but also at the end when it comes to taking the IB diploma. Our graduating class this year once again achieved excellent results. We had a 100% pass rate, 72% of our students graduated with a bilingual diploma, and it must be especially emphasized that two of the graduates achieved a top score of 45 and 44 points, respectively. This puts our school comparatively well above the global average. Thanks to our excellent teams in administration and teaching, we have been achieving these results for years now. Such a degree also opens the door to the best universities in the world.

How did that work out during the lockdown, when the children were not allowed to attend school, or only on a rotating basis?

MH: Fortunately, very well! During the lockdown last year, our teachers specifically did not send out assignments via e-mail but rather made integral use of the technical options that were already in place at our school. The schedule remained undisrupted, and our teachers routinely met with our students on the virtual learning platforms. They were consistently available to support and answer questions. Classes were moved to digital at the touch of a button, so to speak. Digital learning is a classroom routine for us. Our students regularly create presentations and present their project results relatively frequently. Even the younger students are already very good at using interactive media.

If you had to sum up in one sentence why parents should enroll their children at Strothoff International School, what would you say?

MH: We are a living organism, a learning organization that works every day to become even better and prepares children for the demands of the future with commitment, joy and creativity.

Contact

Strothoff International School
Frankfurter Straße 160-166
63303 Dreieich
www.strothoff-international-school.com