Dear Parents, Students, Staff and Friends of the DSK - Deutsche ...

Dear Parents, Students, Staff and Friends
of the DSK
After our anniversary year I would like to wish you all
of the best for the remainder of the 126th year in the
history of the DSK.
Firstly some information regarding the start of the
school year:
Matric results
Our usual outstanding results were confirmed in the
first national exams of the National Senior Certificate
(NSC). We congratulate all the DSK-Matriculants on
their exceptional performance and we are truly proud
to have Simeon Zöllner (10th) and Julia Weidmann
(18th) as two of the the top 20 students in the Western
Cape. All our students passed: 96% obtained university
entrance. Our school thus maintains its excellent
profile among the best schools in the Western Cape.
New classes
We welcome all new students: those who have started
in the first grade, those in the fifth grade as N.Sek.
students, and all the ones who were accepted into
other grades. I wish them a successful and pleasant
stay at the DSK.
GLMZ
In conjunction with rising pupil and teacher numbers,
tuition in saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, horn, trombone
and tuba is now being offered. Both the school choir
and orchestra are slowly expanding and have made an
appearance at the prize-giving ceremony and at the
debut of the DSK school anthem.
Sport
On 23.02.2009 the DSK participated at an Interschoos
Athletics competition for the first time. The DSK held
its head high against stiff competition from the other
schools such as Camps Bay, Reddam, Tamboerskloof
and Sea Point, and obtained a clear second place after
the host school, Jan van Riebeeck.
Grades 2 to 9 held their gala on 27.02.2009. Once again
it was a great event for our students and their parents.
The atmosphere and entertainment were excellent
and several outstanding times were recorded in the
different disciplines.
The sports day on 14.03.2009 took place in beautiful
sunny weather which contributed to a great atmosphere.
Besides the great commitment shown and several new
records being established, the parents also organised a
book sale, a jumping castle and delicious things to eat.
A huge thank you to the sports department and to the
parents who worked tirelessly to ensure success.
New staff
As new staff members we welcome:
Mr Nils Baumann English/History
Ms Patricia Kohrs Biology/Chemistry/
(Sport)
Mr Pierre Fölscher Geography
Ms Sabine Galster German/History
Ms Barbara Heye Biology
Ms Muriel Kossmann Counselling/Life Skills
Mr Andreas Laube Mathematics/Physics
Ms Cherry Olivier Music
Ms Jenny Lynne Pedersen Arts
Ms Reni Richardson Mathematics
Mr Dirk Schulz Mathematics/German
Ms Annemarie Smit Music
Ms Felicitas Weidlich German/Music
Ms Silke Werth French/DaF(German
as foreign language)/
DaM (German as
mother tongue)
Ms Lauren Cloete Scholarship student,
primary school
Ms Anke Königkrämer Scholarship student,
primary school
Ms Iris Henkel AG- and Event-
Manager
www.dsk.co.za

New Leading Positions:
Ms Nellie Zimmermann has taken on the position as
grade head of Grades 7-9.
Ms Gesa Witte has become deputy principal of the
primary school.
Next year Dr Uwe Neumann will take over the post
as study- and career guidance counsellor from Mr
Meures. To ensure a smooth change over, he will lead
the study trip to the German universities this year.
Also this year Mr Norbert Krieg is preparing to take
over the coordination of the “Kombi” stream and
Abitur from Dr Schultz-Gutschke with whom he is
presently cooperating very closely.
Fixtures and Equipment
At the beginning of this school year more classrooms
have been newly equipped. All the rooms in the Gblock
got new desks and chairs to the value of R 140
000; in the H-block there are new curtains to block
the blinding rays of the sun - value R50 000; in the E-
and F-blocks tables and chairs will be resurfaced.
Equipping the high school (from Grade 5) with smart
boards - made possible with the generous support of
the Parents’ Committee - has almost been completed.
Only three rooms in the high school still lack such
electronic equipment.
Implementing the new administration computer
program „Atlantis“ is moving ahead. All data concerning
students, parents and teachers have been captured on it,
enabling us do all statistics and lists with the help of this
program. Mr Machhadi is preparing in-house training
for the teachers in the second term in preparation for
generating the reports using Atlantis. The mailing of
the weekly bulletin and informing parents via SMS in
case of an emergency will also happen through this
program. Soon all staff and students will have passes
with photos which will be issued using Atlantis.
School development
The year 2009 is another important one in terms of
school development: We have already put together
a new steering team according to the different
groupings:
Local staff: Michaela Fernandez, Andrea Springer
Seconded teachers from Germany: Dirk Heiss,
Christiane Kolb
Principals: Hermann Battenberg, Christa Dietterle
Parents’ Committee: Yvette Küng
School Board: Alice Zidek
SRC: invited according to requirement
Dirk Heiss has taken over the post of PQMrepresentative
and is concerned with the continued
process of the „Pedagogical Quality Management“.
Focal points for development will be:
Feedback culture
Smart board training
Method curriculum
Promotion of German
Preparation has been done in all these areas. In this
year we will have to submit to a Peer Review (probably
in October/November). A selected team from the
Deutsche Schule Pretoria will visit us for three days
and evaluate our school according to criteria given to
them by us, after which we will receive a report from
them.
A Peer Review Team from the DSK will conduct a
similar survey at the Deutsche Internationalen Schule
Johannesburg in May.
This Peer Review serves as preparation for a thorough
school inspection from Germany which will probably
take place in 2011.
Double Period Model
Something new for this school year has been the
implementation of as many double periods as possible.
It was a tough job for Mr Meures to reorganise our
time table from the fifth grade upwards in double
period blocks. We hope to ensure a calmer school day
and that more intensive work with several teaching
methods will become reality. We will evaluate this
model later in the year.
Afternoon Care
A new model for the aftercare has decidedly improved
the quality of the care. Special thanks goes to Ms Kohrs
who developed this model in conjunction with our
students who are doing community service, Philipp
Stürmer and Stefan Dahse, as well as with Ms Müller
and Ms Siegel.
www.dsk.co.za

German Year at the DSK for the Promtion of the
German Language
After the anniversary year with its many events, the
school would like to somewhat reflect on its roots and
to strengthen the use of German. The main difference
between our school and a normal South African school
is that we teach most of our subjects through the
medium of German. We have, however, found that
most students prefer using English from Grade 7 on
when conversing with each other. This we would like to
change. As a language German should be experienced
as a language which can be fun and interesting and later
on lead to distinct advantages.
In order to find a motto for our German Year, we asked
students, parents and teachers for input. We received
62 suitable mottos, some of which were really apt,
i.e.:
„Power durch Deutsch“ („Power through German“)
„Mit Deutsch zum Ziel“ („Reach your goal with
German“)
„Deutsch – ich liebe es“ („German – I love it“)
„Deutsch, was sonst?“ („German, what else?)
„Heute schon Deutsch gesprochen?“ („Have you
spoken German yet today?“)
„Finde deine deutsche Seite“ („Find your German
side“)
With a clear majority vote the SRC chose:
„Vorsprung durch Deutsch“ („Advantage through
German“).
Although this motto took its cue from a German car
manufacturer, it encapsulates our aim very well: our
students have a distinct advantage when they learn
German at a German school. If one is able to speak
German, one has a distinct advantage over others in
South Africa.
In order for our students to become confident of
their usage of German more rapidly, we have – after
a trial in Grade 5 in 2008 – extended the method of
divided classes from Grade 5 through to 7. This means
that the students in two of their German periods are
divided into two groups so that they may work more
intensively in smaller groups. This necessitates either
a second teacher during these two lessons per week
or the linking of both the divided lessons with another
subject (i.e. English) in which the students are likewise
divided. We have used both alternatives according to
which was most practical.
Please support us in our efforts to guide our students
to gain a better command of the German language.
In this spirit I wish us all much pleasure in the intensive
work in further developing our school.
Hermann Battenberg, OStD
www.dsk.co.za

DSK teacher’s lecture in Lübeck
In February of this year, Dr Uwe Neumann presented
his freshly minted anthology “Johnson Jahre” in
the august company of the Nobel prize winner for
Literature, Günter Grass. The local press has rightly
hailed this work as an absolute tour de force.
Uwe Neumann presented this evening in the same
way we have learnt to appreciate him at the DSK:
intelligent, witty, entertaining, polite and patient with
his conversational partner, Günter Grass, who was
friend and neighbour to Uwe Johnson and therefore
a true time witness. In short, it was a moving evening
that was really well attended and it brought together
colleagues and students from the DSK as well those
from Uwe’s erstwhile school in Ahrensburg. Our
heartfelt congratulations on a most successful work
and an extraordinary presentation!
Christian Wendt
former Principal - DSK
Dr Uwe Neumann and Günther Grass
STAR CENTRE
Dear Students, Parents and Teachers
The STAR CENTRE-team would like to wish you all a
successful year in 2009. The STAR CENTRE this year
has a somewhat different composition: We welcome
Ms Muriel Kossmann as the new school counsellor.
She is a Lutheran pastor and pastoral counsellor. Ms
Kossmann has a Master’s degree in youth and family
counselling and has practical experience in the domain
of individual and family work.
She is teaching Life Orientation in grades 10 and 11
and Life Skills in grades 5 and 6. Besides teaching, Ms
Kossmann can help all our young people with their
personal, emotional and social problems. Through
counselling the relevant students are offered support
and assistance to enable them to deal with their
problems constructively and in an adequate manner.
Ms Kossmann also functions as a guidance teacher in the
area of Career Guidance. In addition she is a member
of the Peer Mediation and Drug Support team.
A new member of the STAR CENTRE-Team is Ms
Birgit Körte. She is a former teacher of the DSK and
supports our Centre as a remedial teacher. She draws
up plans for remedial teaching and supervises students
in individual- and group teaching.
This year the STAR CENTRE is headed by Ms Petra
Schüler, remedial teacher and dyslexia trainer. She also
supervises students in individual and group teaching
and conducts tests which help to uncover the causes
of learning problems at the earliest possible moment.
The psychologist Ms Ingrid Ahlert supports the STAR
CENTRE in an advisory capacity. As independent
psychologist whose main focus is on school and
social problems, she is also available to the school
community in private capacity. She compiles reports
about the development and school readiness of
students, and reports about school psychological tests.
Ms Ahlert offers counselling to parents and students
with emotional, communication and family problems;
she also does concentration-, anger management- and
behavioural training.
Ms Claudia M Stadler (known as Frau D) does learning
therapy with students who have various learning
problems. Learning therapy involves a multi-sensory
and multi-disciplinary approach which can help with
www.dsk.co.za

visual and observation dysfunction and addresses
reading and spelling difficulties. Learning therapy
demolishes stumbling blocks to efficient learning,
the self-consciousness of a child is considerably
strengthened and motivation for learning increased.
Ms Stadler compiles the remedial plans from grade 5.
K.I.D.S
The K.I.D.S. St. Luke’s Hospice Collection Day was
scheduled one day after our strenuous Community
Chest Carnival hours.
A few members stood their ground at various shopping
centers around Cape Town and experienced friendly
faces but also totally disinterested people.
St. Luke’s Hospice not only caters for terminally ill
cancer patients as a last home, but also provides
personal support for their families and caring for the
sick in their homes. They are mainly dependent on
sponsorships.
At our annual sports day of the DSK, Kumi and I
collected donations for St. Luke’s Hospice, and sold
the remaining crafts which had been created by some
children of our 13 different homes in 2008. A big thanks
to all the children, parents and teachers who donated
towards St. Luke’s Hospice.
We sold nearly all the crafts we still had left.
Matthias Schulz, K.I.D.S. Member
KIDS Enviro Sports Day
A fun-filled day lay before us. Our 16th Enviro Sports
Day started at 10h00 at Big Bay in Blouberg when
youngsters from 11 homes arrived with their adult
supervisors. After the introductory speeches, the
children ran around on the beach, black plastic bags
in their hands to collect rubbish. The homes that
collected the most rubbish received prizes. The prizes
(soccer balls) were put to use shortly afterwards as
some of them started playing soccer, while others
began with volleyball, cricket, touch-rugby, tug-of-war
and swimming. The little ones looked for prizes hidden
in the sand, then built creative sand castles. At midday
there was a communal feast of hot dogs and apples,
washed down with coca-cola.
Finally there was a break-dancing competition with
some more fantastic prizes.
The day was enjoyed by all participants. Thank you
to all sponsors and helpers without whom such a
successful day could not have taken place.
Argus Cycle Tour 2009
At 4 o’clock, on the morning of Sunday, 8 March, Nikitta
Vogl and I climbed out of bed, sleep in eyes, and slipped
on the first clothes we managed to find in the darkness.
Although the rest of Cape Town seemed to only be going
home now, we were just beginning our day. It was going to
be a long one!
The two of us were assigned to do traffic marshalling
of cyclists and cars, at the beginning of the race just
around the corner from Hertzog Boulevard. Never
mind the fact that we started off still half asleep, nothing
www.dsk.co.za

could have been more eye opening than the sight of
hundreds and thousands of cyclists, all determined to
finish the 109km’s of the race that lay ahead of them.
Their motivation not only woke us up, but influenced
us to cheer them on, so from traffic marshals, we
promoted ourselves to cheerleaders!
We both enjoyed ourselves, despite the howling gale,
and hope we did not wake up too much of the city
bowl. What a morning!
Not quite so early but also eager Mrs. McKee stood
her ground at the bottom of Chapman’s Peak Drive
marshalling the ‘flying past’ cyclists to avoid hitting the
pavement at a sharp road bent. Her shift began at 7am
and lasted to 3pm.
Michelle Matzdorff (K.I.D.S. Vice President
Community Chest Carnival
Community Chest 2009
On Friday, 27 February, all K.I.D.S. members
participated at the Community Chest Carnival, which
takes place annually in the last week of February at
Maynardville in Wynberg. K.I.D.S. members were
scheduled to work at the chips, calamari and Indonesian
food stalls, two of which had the highest profits of all
the stands at the carnival. Several members prepared
the food, while others advertised our stalls and helped
eager and hungry customers.
Flour in hair, food on clothes and tartar sauce in hand,
all members had a great time and are looking forward
to next year’s carnival. All together now: One, two,
three… “Calamari, come get your calamari!”
Michelle Matzdorff (K.I.D.S. Vice President)
Home-from-Home
On Friday, 6 February, K.I.D.S. visited the Homfrom-Home
orphanage in Khayelitsha. Prior to our
visit, we made rainmakers out of bamboo, which the
older children at the one home then filled with rice
and decorated with leather strips, beads, permanent
markers, wire and other materials.
Each child made 2 rainmakers and was allowed to
keep one. For the younger children we brought cigar
holders, which they then filled with rice and decorated
with permanent markers. As with the older children,
each child kept one shaker. These rainmakers and
shakers will be sold at our K.I.D.S. annual ‘Cultural
Day’.
K.I.D.S. members and the other children all enjoyed
themselves while making the instruments, and we are
all touched by the experience. It really was a day to
remember.
Michelle Matzdorff (K.I.D.S. Vice President)
www.dsk.co.za

Fruit salad and veggie bites
As part of their Social Studies the Parow students
of Grade 1 made a fruit salad and those of Grade 2
made a vegetable platter. The children were allowed
to choose their own fruit or vegetable
.
On the day the children were all taught the correct
handling of sharp knives and were warned that they
would not be allowed to continue with the preparation
if they did not adhere to instructions. All the children
had their fruit, cutting board, knife, spoon and a cloth
(for wiping their hands) ready. Each prepared his/her
own plate of salad.
After successfully completing their task, the table was
laid and a well-known song was sung as preparation
for the festive meal. The children then ate their own
fruit salad with great relish and tried the tasty veggie
bites. Everything tasted so good, that they polished
every last crumb.
Remo Gebhardt (Student)
from the left: Tamara Rabus, Caleigh Ilgen, Davina Geletta, Jessica
Bürkle, Chantal Lessmann und Celina Feibig
Eco-Rangers
On Tuesday, 3rd of March, we, the Eco Rangers, went
on an outing to the Earth Worm farm in Noordhoek.
Upon arrival at the farm Marie (our entertainer) took
us to a small hut. We learned so much about earth
worms, for instance that they have 5 hearts. Then
we did a funny little dance about how earth worms
move.
Finally, we went to see where the earth worms live.
We were all surprised when they told us that there
were 15 000 worms in a rather compact space. The
worms were in small black boxes with a tiny black tap.
The tap is used to extract the earth worms’ urine, also
called earth worms’ tea, which is very good for the
plants. The compost is made by the earth worm and is
used to grow plants.
When we returned to the hut Marie gave us a can
crusher and a story book, which she wrote. It was an
informative and enjoyable outing for all.
Pierre Fölscher
www.dsk.co.za

Bees and owls at the DSK
Stoffel Visagie tucks into the honey
Last year an owl nest (box) was installed at the DSK to
encourage owls to nest on our premises, in order to
reduce the rodent population, as is generally known.
The owls, however, did not arrive. In their stead the
bees moved in. We had to call in a beekeeper to
remove these insects, which have proven to be quite
dangerous to some learners. The bees were smoked
out and five honeycombs were removed from the owl
house. Our workers were very happy about the sweet
honey! We are now contemplating the purchase of an
owl. And the swarm of bees? It was purchased by our
neighbour Mrs Steinberg.
Grade 6 Blue Flag outing
On 16 March Grades 6 and 7 (about 160 students)
went on an outing to the Blue Flag beach at Camps
Bay. We were given interesting information about
the threatened shark species, coastal pollution and a
demonstration on life saving and first aid. Three actors
did a play on how we could recycle, reduce and re-use
rubbish: re-use waste! Reduce waste! Recycle paper/
plastic/glass/metal! Some of us could even participate
in the play. We can still remember the songs that we
learnt there. At the end of the event we all received a
lunch packet with bread, a drink and nuts.
Julia Andreas 6a
www.dsk.co.za

Dear Alumni and Conexio Members
During the Christmas festivities some of the Alumni
of the DSK had a convivial get-together. Reinhard
Nachenius who came from Durban, organised the
reunion of the 1970 MATRICS. Many from that class
do not live in Cape Town any more, but an enthusiastic
little group met in a Hout Bay restaurant. Present were
Reinhard, Konni Kruger (Gremels), Charl Roux, Bernd
Weimar, Peter Arnold, Walter and Hannie Geugis and
Mevrou Smit, their class teacher at the time. Many
memories about the time at school and later years
were revisited. The event started at half past one and
the last to leave did so at half past nine. It was great fun
for everybody.
In February Barbara Davison (Nell) celebrated a
special (round) birthday and she receives our heartfelt
congratulations. Both her children who are married
and have settled in London and have their own children
by now, as well as her brother Thomas (Matric 1964),
came from England for the celebrations.
Ingrid Leistert (Naumann) arrived for her annual visit
to Cape Town.
An inquiry came from a former student (Matric 1979)
if a reunion – after 30 years – could be viable. It would
be great if other interested parties would declare
their interest, so that the school could also organise
something. Queries to Karin Fröhlich, secretary@dsk.
co.za or Tel. 021 480 3835.
There was an extraordinary reunion for the final year
class (standard 8) of 1947 of the old St Martini School.
7 former students from a class of 11 met in St Helena
Bay (photo by Evan Naude, published in Weslander on
12.2.2009). This is 70 years since they left school (3 of
the 11 have since passed away).
Werner Fischer, Günter Voss, Heinz Stelzner, Georg
Hellström, Dieter Wagener, Johann Steyn and Friedrich
(Foghorn Freddy) Köstlich squashed into school
benches from 1939, and finished standard 8 at the St
Martini School in Queen Victoria Street (where St
Martini Gardens now stands). That was as far as they
could then go at the DSK; subsequently they proceeded
to a state school to finish Matric. Over the years they
kept contact and met every 5 years or so. In 1975
Dieter Wagener returned to Germany, but came back
for every reunion. All of them speak German, English
and Afrikaans. They fondly remember those days when
there were no uniforms and things were different.
The memory of several beatings (administered by the
principal) brought a mischievous smile to the men’s
faces. During the war they could only speak English
in public.
On Saturday, 9 May at eleven o’ clock, the annual
jazzbrunch, organised by Conexio, will take place and
all of you reading this are cordially invited. We would
like to spend a convivial Saturday morning with some
beer, sausage and champagne.
We hope to see you then.
Karin Fröhlich for the Conexio Team
DSK Alumni Website
The DSK has a free alumni portal. The purpose of this portal is to
enable alumni to:
• maintain contact,
• find alumni (search the online-database),
• be able to organise class reunions,
• exchange experience regarding the choice of
subjects, study options and careers,
• be able to offer or seek an internship position and/
or vacancies,
• join in forum discussions and
• receive information regarding our school.
Present learners are also welcome to register! This
would however be meaningful for high school learners
only, as they would be able to administer their profiles
and contact alumni in order to inform themselves
about „life out there“!
We wish you success and fun exploring the portal!
Your Alumni Portal Administrator - Torsten Koehler
https://dskapstadt.alumniportal.org/
www.dsk.co.za

Carnival in Parow
Who of us does not love dressing up and slipping into
another role? On Tuesday, 24 February, the children
and teachers at Parow held such a fancy dress carnival.
All the children arrived at school with their colourful
fantasy costumes. In the first two lessons there was
a happy procession of indians, clowns, fairies, Roman
ceasars and soldiers, robbers, princesses and dancers
to be seen roaming around the school grounds. In the
sports area we sang funny songs, played games and
held a costume show. The newspaper dance was most
fun. Dance-offs were held on an ever decreasing size of
folded newspaper. Afterwards teachers and students
enjoyed carnival doughnuts.
After this successful carnival we are already looking
forward to clowning around next year.
Maggi Reinstorf
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CBD and Wynberg
Quality German-medium
education
High teacher-pupil ratio
Individual attention
Aftercare offered
Extramural activities
Stimulating environment
for 3-6 year olds
Grade R’s are prepared
for entry into Gr. 1
at the Deutsche
Internationale Schule
021 4232720
kindergarten@stmartini.org.za
www.stmartini.org.za
www.dsk.co.za

Boarding School
Our boarding school is not full at present. Please relay
this message to friends and family in the Germanspeaking
European countries. Click here (http://www.
dsk.co.za/internat_e.html) to read more about the
DSK boarding school.
www.dsk.co.za

Subscribe to the weekly newsletter
„Die Woche“
Friends, acquaintances, alumni and visitors
to the web may now also subscribe to our
newsletter on www.dsk.co.za/infoblatt_e.html.
Current parents and staff of our school are
automatically sent a copy.
\\ Impressum:
Deutsche Internationale Schule Kapstadt
28 Bay View Avenue, Tamboerskloof
8001 Cape Town
South Africa
Tel +27 21 480 3830
Fax +27 21 423 8349
Mail info@dsk.co.za
Web www.dsk.co.za
\\ Edition/Advertisement::
Charmaine Saurwein
Tel.: +27 21 480 3840
Mail: pa.bursar@dsk.co.za
\\ Layout:
Torsten Koehler
Mail: torstenkoehler@dsk.co.za
www.dsk.co.za