Newsletter March 2023

Go to the photos and reports

Dear friends of the Stella School!

Before the start of the Easter holidays, we would like to give you a little insight into our experiences of the last few weeks. The children have again compiled short reports and photos for you, which you can find below. For parents and teachers, the topic of further education was again very important, especially on topics of personal development. It is wonderful to experience the whole school as a learning organisation and to see how everyone pulls together to further develop this core area of our school.

A few particularly current topics are progress on the construction of the Stella Campus on the Donauplatte, the many enrolments in the primary school and grammar school, and preparations for a few dates to which we would like to cordially invite you now. Firstly, there is our Spring Festival (organised by the primary school and kindergarten) on Saturday, 22 April 2023 from 10:00-16:00 in the Lassallestrasse schoolyard. Then there is the Leadership Day in the Gymnasium on Thursday, 5 May 2023, from 9:00-13:00.

And in case you have not yet received this information: In autumn 2023, a 5th grade Secondary School will also start. There are still some free places, and for those who need it, there is a Latin preparation course every Thursday – you can still join: https://www.stella-dc.at/en/5th-grade-grammar-school-from-04-september-2023/

There is also a lot going on at our site in Seebenstein (Lower Austria): there are ongoing information evenings (German), and in autumn, a secondary school for grades 1 and 2 will start alongside the kindergarten and primary school.

From the bottom of my heart, I wish you a happy and blessed Easter and a few relaxing days with your loved ones.

Yours sincerely

Heidi Burkhart & the Stella International School Team

Contents

Stella Seebenstein

In the last lesson before the Easter holidays, we walked the Stations of the Cross in Seebenstein Nature Park. In the two religious education lessons beforehand, the children created their own Stations of the Cross booklet with the 14 stations. Our school chaplain Dr. Thomas Kenner also accompanied our class on this walk.

We have our daily active snack break in the school garden whenever possible. The happy children are already enjoying the awakening of nature!

After-school care and Kindergarten (Vienna)

The nursery school children also engaged in their favourite activities in March. The fascination with drop pictures, which can be created with the help of a pipette, or the home-grown cress, which rounded off the taste of the snack, are just a few of the many highlights that the children experience in the after-school care centre.

In March, we spent a few exciting days in the kindergarten.

Right at the beginning, the KISI puppet theatre “Pauli and the robber Stinkefuß” visited us. Together with the first classes of the Stella Primary School, the children really enjoyed the play. Especially the dance elements in the play were very popular.

It is always nice to be able to take advantage of opportunities where kindergarten and primary school can experience something together. This makes the transition from kindergarten to primary school easier for our children.

A fixed point in March in the kindergarten is the feast of St. Joseph. Traditionally, we celebrate our fathers around this day. The children prepare a gift for their father. In addition, the fathers are invited to a small breakfast. They are also allowed to visit their children in the group.

For the children in particular, it is something very special when they can show their fathers “their world”. The fathers also enjoy this exclusive time with their children.

Primary school (Vienna)

A Stella father has donated 7 stand PCs to us. The PCs will be made available to the primary school classes after the standard installation by Stella IT. Attached is a photo of the handover. Thank you so much!

The first classes started the project “Nature and Plants” in March. In the course of this project we visited the flower gardens in Hirschstetten.

The 2nd classes had a sleepover at school on 16 March. This “reading night” was all about fairy tales, because we worked in the fairy tale workshop, looked for the star talers and played quite fairy tale-like games.

In our science lessons in 3rd grade, we did a scavenger hunt through our school district on the topic of Vienna. The week before last, we also walked along the Ringstraße.

We were allowed to take a look at the first building of our walk, the university. When we reached the City Hall, we were amazed by another Viennese landmark, the three-metre tall Rathausmann (City Hall Man) with a shoe size of 63.

Last week we went to the Musikverein (Vienna Music Society) for the participatory concert “The Moldau” by Bedřich Smetana, performed by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

For this event, we exchanged our red school uniforms for blue clothes, so that the Golden Hall could be transformed into the Moldau. It was a feast for the ears and the eyes.

St. Stephen’s Cathedral was also a must on our Vienna excursions. This week we visited the landmark of Vienna.

After a tour, the class climbed the 343 steps to the “Türmerstube” (turret room) of the “Steffl” and could once again marvel at some of the buildings of the Ringstraße and the roof of St. Stephen’s Cathedral from above.

The 4a had their bicycle training: First there was an exciting practice lesson with the policeman. Then the whole 4a cycled happily and highly concentrated through the traffic garden. Thus prepared, we look forward to the bike test without any fear.

Secondary school (Vienna)

In March, the 1st grade of the Gymnasium followed in the footsteps of the great painters to the Kunsthistorisches Museum. There, the pupils were impressed by the works of the great masters from Pieter Bruegel the Elder to Raphael and Giuseppe Arcimboldo, to name just a few examples.

As part of this, a selection of masterpieces was examined more closely in small groups and subjected to a joint and insightful pictorial analysis. The excursion was so exciting that we will certainly go on more such tours.

In Creative Design this month, a wide variety of figures and fantasy creatures were designed and created from unusual materials such as fabric, felt and rags. The students gave free rein to their creativity and the colourful results were impressive.