.. which is why we want to give them the greatest opportunity possible to become curious, independent, creative, empathetic and considerate young people.

We, the Rostock Protestant City Mission, had to build a replacement building for our old Protestant elementary school in Kavelstorf near Rostock. Managing this with no state financial support, only with loans, private funding and donations, was no easy task. But we have prevailed, and 75 children embarked on the new school year on 10 August 2019.

Our efforts to found our Protestant school have a solid foundation in our Christian view of humanity and our desire to realise progressive ideas of education in a countryside setting. It is our ambition to retain children’s natural curiosity and enthusiasm for learning while offering them manifold opportunities to realize their full potential. For us, music and art education are a necessary and important part of this endeavour.

In our funding application, we noted the fact that we would not be able to realize all our ideas with the means at our disposal. Motivated music teachers, volunteers and childminders – all these we could provide. But what we needed were instruments, technical equipment, stage units, an audio set-up and various other things. So we went off on a search for a sponsor who would be able to help us with these and thus also allow us to maintain our focus on music and creativity.

We have been able to acquire instruments, sound technology and stage units worth €17.500 for our music and drama room thanks not least to your generous donation of instruments, alongside that of other donors.

We want to foster our children after classes, too, in a way that is meaningful, multifaceted, eventful, and geared to individual needs. We also want to engage them in activities which are unfamiliar to them: acting in plays, singing, and making music are not only fun, they also enhance pupils’ social skills as well as their intellectual abilities. It sharpens children’s senses, challenges and strengthens their motor, cognitive, and emotional abilities. In addition, creative work regularly brings out previously unrecognized talents which may then profit from individual support. No matter whether as part of the choir, the school band, or the drama group – children love singing, making music, declaiming, inhabiting parts, and they take joy in preparing shared performances together. The results may be presented to large or small audiences, for example to their fellow children who are in attendance that afternoon, or to the whole school as part of larger events.

Of course, the children at our school play the leading part in all this. The boys and girls come to our school with very different social, cultural and religious experiences; they differ emotionally and physically as well in their intellectual proclivities. What is special in our programme is that children with and without prior knowledge of making music work together in the choir, band, and drama group. Notwithstanding their difference in experience, these creative projects are an opportunity for them to practice peaceful togetherness, learn that others’ difference are actually an opportunity, and recognize that communication is the basis for achieving goals in all kinds of situations in life. In their rehearsals together for performance, children experience music and drama as something that is elementary and makes them happy.

Children, project leaders and staff of both the school and the crèche are equally delighted with the great equipment that can now be put to good use in music lessons, the choir, the band project, the drama group as well as individual practice, and which allows us to keep alive our focus on music and creativity.

Our project may still be in its early stages, but the Hans Thomann Foundation’s generous donation has allowed us to realize a great number of ideas and to offer children who do not have their own instruments an opportunity to broaden their horizons through engagement with music.

 

Author:
Rolf Gauck
Rostock, 28 August 2019

Diakonie Rostocker Stadtmission e.V. (Youth Services Provider)

LandSchulCampus
Evangelische Grundschule mit Hort
in Kavelstorf
Kreuzweg 6 | 18196 Kavelstorf
Tel. 038208 82350 | grundschule@rostocker-stadtmission.de
www.egs-kavelstorf.de | www.landschulcampus.de