Mein Sport – Mein Heidelberg – Meine Zukunft

H.I.S. Students Win Award

How should the city of Heidelberg develop as a sports city? This was the question the students had to answer in the form of a creative writing task.

The competition was initiated by the sports department of the University of Heidelberg. 5 students of the grade 7 German Language & Litearature class (Neils, Sanpi, Philipp, Aiden and Marta) sent in their short stories. On the 18th of July the award ceremony took place on campus in the Neuenheimer Feld. All participants were invited and the short listed students received the message that they were likely to win a price.

Aiden won third price in the category “Jugendliche”. His story was about a big youth sports event, like a video game, in the city of Heidelberg, including famous places like the Neckarwiese and the Alte Brücke. Martha couldn’t attend the ceremony, but was able to pick up her first price some days later. She submitted a very sensitive story about a teenager who has no interest in sport and in the end makes up his mind to get involved in sports activities.

The prices were sponsored by institutions in Heidelberg. Next to the certificates Marta and Aiden received vouchers for  the Heidelberg SoccArena, tickets for the BasCats USC Heidelberg for the season 2023/24 and vouchers for the Heidelberg funicular.

Congrats to the happy winners and thanks to the other grade 7 students who made the effort to write and submit a story!

BK

Schultüten for Early Primary Students

Grade 4 Action

In PYP, taking action doesn’t just mean implementing new ideas to help the HIS community or the global community.

Taking action can also mean passing on already existing traditions. This year, our Grade 4 students wanted to bring a German tradition to our school.

To do this, they chose the tradition of handing over a „Schultüte“ to all students entering 1st grade after the summer break.

The tradition of the „Schultüte“ goes back to the 19th century and is still very much alive today. The content of the „Schultüte“ is supposed to sweeten the 1st day of Grade 1. This tradition is also a right of passage to move from Kindergarten into school.

The Grade 4 students not only handed over the „Schultüten“ to our EP 2 students, but they will also keep an eye on their “friends“ when the EP 2 students will be in Grade 1 after the summer holidays.

SH

Friday Handicraft Group

Science posters & Spring display

Science Posters

In the der Friday It’s My Serve! Handicraft Group we created three science themed posters for the two science rooms. We made the posters three different themes: chemistry, biology and physics.

Our inspiration came from what we had learned from 6th – 10th grade. We created these posters because Mrs. Mechkova requested it and it would give color to the science rooms.

We liked working with each other and approving our communication skills to get all the different elements done. Although it took a bit too long to finish it turned out to be a beautiful collage of all the topics we covered in our science years. The black background makes the vibrant colors pop out.

Hannah, Sophie, Bernard, Oliver

Spring Display

We liked that with the Spring display we were able to express our own individual ideas and interests, to the extent that the display became a work of our own and our own individual form of artistic expression.

We individually created drawings related to the theme of spring and then cut them out methodically and pasted them onto the windows into a beautiful exhibition of freedom of thought and mind and spring.

The original idea behind the spring display, that combined different art styles and ideas of spring, was to bring joy to the people walking past and inspire them that spring break was close. We think that the product reflects each of our own individual values of creativity and ideas.

Stella, Charlotte, Marta, Lieselot

28 Hours Without Phones

Duke of Edinburgh's Award: First Practice Expedition

Last weekend saw the first Duke of Edinburgh’s Award practice expedition of the year. The students escaped the rain and had a very sunny and warm weekend.

Starting in Eberbach, the groups walked carrying their backpacks and had a lunch stop at an old ruin. They then continued with their selected routes all the way to the campsite near Neuenkirchen. After their arrival at the campsite, setting up tents and cooking themselves dinner, they spent a glorious sunny afternoon just chilling, playing volleyball and making a campfire.

The following morning, after a good warm breakfast, the students packed up their trangias and tents. They then walked towards their final destination for the weekend. Luckily it was a warm, dry weekend. It was only when the students were on their way home that the heavens opened up to some major thunderstorms!

The students arrived exhausted, not only due to the walking but also the heat.  They should all be proud of their achievements over the two days.  More importantly, there were no phones in sight all weekend and one student commented on their arrival that they had just spent 28 hours without using phones or any other devices.

All in all, it was a great start for the groups. We are looking forward to a further practice expedition over two nights at the beginning of June and the final assessed two-night three-day expedition at the end of June.

SAB

Celebrating Students’ Achievements

Just before the Easter break, a secondary celebration assembly was held to celebrate some of the successes of our secondary school students over the past year.

We acknowledged the students in Grades 8, 9 and 10 who took part in the „Schüler machen Zeitung“ project and had their own articles published in the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung – a great success for our young journalists!

There was an acknowledgment of the Grade 9 and 10 students who took part in a local basketball competition as well as the students who had participated in recent Mathematics competitions that were held in Vienna and in Munich

An award and a monetary prize were awarded to three students in Grade 9 for their participation in last year’s Explore Science competition.  Again this year we have many of our classes participating with the chance to win prizes.

Certificates of participation were also handed out to several Grade 10 & 11 students who took part in MUN earlier this year and we have just had another delegation recently attend a conference in Stuttgart and return with three students nominated as best delegates and two as best dressed delegates – another great success!

Finally, the prestigious Duke of Edinburgh’s Silver Award was awarded to our first cohort of students, eight Grade 11 students in recognition of their achievements. Over a year, each student had to complete a skill, a physical reaction activity and service as well as an expedition over two days after numerous trainings throughout the year. Each student received a certificate and small silver pin. This year we have 18 Grade 10 students involved who will soon be starting their outdoor expedition training.

Although the assembly celebrated the successes of many of the older students in the MYP, there was a lot of discussion afterwards amongst the younger students. They not only gained an impression of the many opportunities that H.I.S. has to offer but also what they can look forward to participating in in the years to come.

SAB

Slam Dunk!

Grade 8-10 H.I.S. students participated in the Heidelberg Stadtmeisterschaft for Basketball held at the SNP Dome in the city.

The “H.I.S Nuggets”, as they call themselves, performed fantastically well.  Helped on by coach Ben from Grade 12 the “Nuggets” managed to win one of their group games before unfortunately being eliminated from the tournament in overtime due to a technical foul.  The 10 students representing the school really tried hard in all of the games and can be proud of themselves.

A big Thank You to all of the students, Ben and also LF who helped coach the team.

JK

Grade 5 Student Takes Action

Miya noticed that our sick bay Koala, who regularly comforts students who have hurt themselves or are feeling unwell, was perhaps feeling a little bit sad herself.

Miya decided to sew Koala some new accessories. Koala looks so smart now and is cheerful again, and ready to help students in need.

Thanks for taking Action Miya!

NP

Grade 10 Service Activity

Grade 10 organized a spontaneous mini-street cleaning-action during homeroom period on Wednesday this week. The weather was fine and during one hour the students found an unexpected amount of trash in the close neighborhood of H.I.S.

One team was especially successful. Well done grade 10!

BK