Meeting Days 2018
On Sunday, August 12th, we held our traditional “Meeting Day” at Friedrich-Schiller Gymnasium. What does that mean?
Every year, shortly before the beginning of the school year, the German students of the binational 7th grade meet their new Czech classmates for the first time.But they don’t just simply meet each other. This first meeting also opens many opportunities for the students to get to know each other and develop friendships with their new classmates.
During this festive first meeting, the new Czech students, their parents, and other family members were joined by teachers, mentors, the school administration, and many other guests, who all took the opportunity to welcome the new students. This year we were also joined by the General Consul of the Czech Republic, Frau Dr. Meissnerová, Herr Mgr. Kubát, representative of the Ministry for Education, Youth, and Sports of the Czech Republic, Frau Dombois, the Vice President of the Saxon Parliament, Herr Kettner, the leader of the Dresden location of the State Office for Schools and Education on behalf of the Saxon Culture Ministry, and Herr Köhler as the representative of the city of Pirna.
Sunday flew by fast!
After the celebration in the auditorium and a big surprise of a sugar-cone tree, everyone enjoyed a barbecue buffet. The mothers of the students also prepared many delicious cakes for the occasion. At 6:00pm, the students said farewell to their parents, and the new German-Czech class, accompanied by their head teacher and two mentors, took a bus to the youth retreat house in Liebethal.
Everything was already prepared for our stay in Liebethal: a beautiful accommodation in nature and a varied activities program helped foster the budding of mutual friendships. The students spent two “colorful” days together during which there were thousands of opportunities for students to talk and make new friends. It was also a wonderful experience for the head teacher and the mentors. The teachers and mentors had the opportunity to see the students outside of the classroom, have conversations with the students, and simply get to know the new cohort.
So what did the students think?
The accommodations were really nice!
There were fun games including slack lines and archery.
We walked through the forest, painted self portraits, played table tennis...we really got to know each other! It was a lot of fun.
And there was tasty food...