Contribution
The goal of friends of siss is to support the international school community at the Schuldorf Bergstrasse. One of the most visible is the climbing web for the Primary Branch playground, for which 12,000 Euro in funding was provided to supplement funds from the Landkreis, parent fundraisers and a donation organized by one of our members from BB Bank of 1500 Euro.
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Through memberships, direct donations and your support of the online fundraisers, here are some of the more behind the scenes events and resources the friends of siss has supported along the way. You can also jump to a specific year here.
(updated January 2025)
🦎🦎🦎fos was happy to support this annual project for the first time. The project starts with students sketching models of lizards, then creating wire frames from head to tail. From here, they mold clay onto the frames, air dry them and then put the finishing artistic touches to their creative lizards. The lizards were one of the art displays at the 2025 Schuldorf Open Day. Take a look!
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Audio: by Douglas, Source: Adobe Stock, unique Content ID code: ASLC-3D6E14C1-C12AB78F37, Asset ID#: 608870073
Photos: Art Dept Secondary Branch, Schuldorf Open Day 2025
PRESCHOOL
Mr Sunshine's Christmas Show
To wrap up a month of holiday activities, the Preschool children enjoyed a magical performance by Mr Sunshine. Thank you to our members for making events like this possible!
​Check out the Preschool's instagram for a glance of the show.
PRIMARY
Back on Stage!
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​For the first time since 2019 - yes, 2019! - the Primary Branch students kicked off the holiday season with their production of the play "Snowman at Sunset." The friends of siss gladly purchased the license for this wonderful show by Out of the Art Music.
A rendition of "Jingle Bells" was played on the bucket drums that were purchased earlier in 2024 thanks to membership support.
The show ended with the audience singing along with the students to the classic song "Let it Snow."
P.S. It did snow shortly after the 2nd day's production!
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SCHULDORF BILINGUAL LIBRARY
New books
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To complete the fresh new look of the Bilingual Library, students have new books to enjoy as they sit back in the new cushions added earlier this year.
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Extra thanks to Ms Fischer for her help in selecting the English books most popular with young readers!
SECONDARY
Drum roll please!
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The Music department's drum set has seen several hard core student drummers over the years. The friends of siss purchased new ride and crash cymbals in 2024 to keep the beat going!
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Thank you to Ms Grund for selecting the cymbals.
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Trivia for the non-drummers in the crowd:
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Crash Cymbal: A cymbal used to create a loud, crashing sound.
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Ride Cymbal: A large cymbal used for playing steady, articulate patterns, typically with the tip of the drumstick.
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*Definitions courtesy of: https://www.drumeo.com/beat/drum-terms/
SECONDARY
Year 5 Ernsthofen Trip
After their first month at Secondary, the Year 5 students enjoyed their first class trip to Ernsthofen in October 2024.
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The friends of siss covered part of the costs for lodging and bus transportation.
SCHULDORF BILINGUAL LIBRARY
Comfy Upgrade
New carpets, beanbags and cushions were purchased to brighten up the reading space of the Schuldorf's bilingual library (World of Books/Bücherwelt).
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This was a combined Förderverein contribution. The Grundschule Förderverein provided 10 small beanbags (red and blue) and 2 big round red carpets.
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20 new seating cushions (10 red and 10 blue / square) were funded by the friends of siss.
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Still to come - new books in English!
PRIMARY
Music Resources
The friends of siss supported the donation of music lesson resources for the students at Primary.
The children played a drum rendition of Jingle Bells in their 2024 winter play (story above).
SECONDARY
Heavy Rains postpone Modau Measurements
Safety always comes first.
In spring 2024, Year 11 Geography students were preparing for their IA (internal assessment) by learning to use measurement tools to measure various locations along the nearby Modau river.
Heavy rain started falling and soon the water was already on the limit of the safety height used as a measure (knee-high). Since this was upstream, the supervising staff expected the water to be even higher at the next measuring sites downstream.
The friends of siss covered the costs for rescheduling the bus transportation.
to the Geo Staff team for keeping our students safe!
PRIMARY
Supervision Drama Club Performance
Handmade masks, settings and costumes.
A warm spring day for the 2024 Playgarden Spring Fest.
What better way to watch the outdoor performance of the Primary branch's Drama Club students!
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The friends of siss was happy to cover the license costs from for this and the encore performance given to the Flex classes.
Drawing from drama club student.
PRIMARY
Playground Equipment
Since 2020, we have supported each class in their order of either indoor activity equipment during the pandemic, or outdoor equipment once the lockdown was over.
PRIMARY
Antolin Reading Program
Since 2022, we have sponsored the license needed to grant students access to this fun and interactive online reading program that helps them improve not only their comprehension skills but also their German!
The Antolin-Illustration is a Copyright of ©Westermann
Source: www.antolin.de
Illustration: Iris Blanck
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PRIMARY
Cool Down after Sports Day
Since 2020, friends of siss has provided a sweet cool down treat the Primary students after a full morning of physical activity.
Sports Day is an annual event held throughout Germany for students to demonstrate their running, jumping and throwing skills. Needless to say, after this hard workout, cooling down with a popsicle is a great way to end the day
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PRIMARY and SECONDARY
Brennball Tournament Trophies
Since 2023, we cover the awards given to the Year 5 and Primary student participants of the Brennball tournament.
​Read more on the Schuldorf website about this great initiative that keeps getting bigger every year!
PRIMARY and SECONDARY
Planners - CAS Project
Spurred by the need to provide online CAS project options during the pandemic, in 2020 friends of siss parent volunteers have guided Year 11 CAS students in designing a tailored planner for the SISS Secondary and Primary branches.
Did you know?
165 Euro
In 2022/23 the CAS student team decided to donate a portion of the planner sales to the Plan charity.
The Secondary planner highlights the IB principles as portrayed through student artwork.
The Primary planner has become the standard homework diary in all classes and also includes artwork from the students.
SECONDARY
The hidden extras
As a German state school, some of the IB and IGCSE resources are not 100% covered and this is where friends of siss lends its support. Since 2021, costs covered thanks to your annual membership fees, included digital recorders for IB oral examinations, shipping costs for the textbooks that come from abroad, subscriptions to IGCSE Maths and Science teacher resource databases, GDC calculators for the Maths Department and the accompanying smartboard software.
SECONDARY
IB Training
With the Covid restrictions removed, in 2023, IB teachers were once again able to attend training courses and IB conferences. The friends of siss was happy to continue their support by covering the transportation and accommodation costs as was done prior to the pandemic.
Thank you to our members for helping make the on-going training possible!
SECONDARY
SISS Alumni - CAS Project
Since 2021 friends of siss is supporting The Alumni Association which is a CAS project for IB students in years 11 and 12. Along with allowing SISS graduates to stay in touch, one goal is to create a space where current and past students can share information.
​The students also organize the class reunions for our graduates. Check out the memories on the alumni website which is also supported by the friends of siss.
SECONDARY
IB certificate folders, graduate gowns and medals
Since 2016 the IB graduation gowns as well as the diploma folders have been provided by the friends of siss.
As of 2023 graduates also receive an IB medal as a momento of their dedicated work in completing the IB programme.
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Additional support for past IB ceremonies has ranged from the reception drinks, to graduation caps, to the framed graduating class photo presented as a farewell gift to each student.
Source: Caps and Gowns. (n.d.). Graduation caps, gowns & accessories. Retrieved December 20, 2024, from https://capsandgowns.eu
SECONDARY
IB Graduate Plaques
Each year the friends of siss is a happy to submit the names of each graduating class to be engraved onto a new glass plaque. Take a quick left at the main entrance of the Secondary building to see the growing number of IB diploma graduates!
SECONDARY
Books, books, books!
New books arrived in winter 2023 and spring 2024 to both the German Year 5/6 classrooms and the library respectively.
PRIMARY
Supervision - New Relaxation Room and new items for the Playgarden
Keep an eye out in the Playgarden as well. With spring 2024 around the corner, some new sand will be delivered and eventually a retro style water pump will be installed.
PRESCHOOL
New Couches for Each Group!
As an early 2023 Christmas present, the Sun Bears, Star Bears and Moon Bears groups each received a new couch in their classrooms. Now, the children can cuddle up with a book or other activity together!
SCHULDORF AULA
Time for New Microphones
Many of us have enjoyed watching our children sing, dance, recite poems, play music or act on stage throughout their student career. In 2023, it was time to upgrade the microphones used at the Aula. Both the Schuldorf FÖV and the friends of siss were happy to contribute towards this request so that the memory making events could continue!
SECONDARY
Y8 German A - Visit to Anne Frank House
In 2023, the German A students had a chance to visit Anne Frank's birth home in Frankfurt as well as the Bildungsstätte Anne Frank, as a wrap-up to the WWII component of their History and German lessons.
The friends of siss contributed to the bus transportation and admission fee for each student.
SECONDARY
2022 Talent Show
The Talent Show returned live on stage and friends of siss provided financial support to the technical and sound crew at this great event.
PRIMARY
Green Classroom “Rent-a-Chicken”
Chickens are full of surprises; they are funny and far more complex than many people think. The friends of siss was happy to cover half of the costs so that Primary pupils could have the chance to witness this first hand for four weeks in 2023. They had experiences that children often do not often have nowadays and also learned how to gently handle chickens, thus- fostering social skills.
Eggs do not grow in the supermarket!
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How does a chicken live, what does it eat and where do the eggs come from?
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What does an egg look like inside?
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Why do chickens lay eggs at all and how do the eggs you can buy differ?
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What are the different types of farming?
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What is the nutritional value of an egg?
​The pupils studied all these questions in the project.
Since chickens are flight animals and react with fear to hectic movements or loud noises, children have to behave calmly. Only those who are empathetic and relaxed will have a chicken in their arms that does not clamour and flap, but cuddles up closely and softly. Through the incentive of also wanting to hold a chicken in their arms, even lively children become calm and concentrate on one thing. Moreover, since the animals react like a mirror, the children get immediate feedback on how they appear to the chickens. This helps develop better self- perception and understand why other children react to them in a certain way. The children also get a sense of the power of their movements and practice mindfulness. For example, if a child grabs a chicken too tightly, it clucks in fright or flaps its wings. The next time, the chicken will approach more cautiously. The child will try to pick up the chicken more gently because he or she has noticed the animal's reaction.
Each hen laid one egg a day. At the end, everyone enjoyed boiled eggs with green sauce and potatoes.
Yummy!
PRIMARY
On the Trail of Thistle Butterflies
In 2022, the Green Classroom of the primary branch hosted a project that focused on the life cycle and metamorphosis of butterflies.
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The Green Classroom is about integrating nature and the environment into the classroom. For this butterfly project, the friends of siss financed a thistle breeding set which included about 25 caterpillars, food and two aviaries for the butterflies. The set also contained posters and small models which helped the students understand the life cycle from egg to caterpillar and pupation to butterfly.
In class, the children learned how to handle the caterpillars carefully and were able to get a close-up look at these insects. Other tasks and content in class deepened their knowledge regarding the thistle butterflies: For example, central characteristics were recorded in a fact sheet, after which the children were able to draw the animals and their life cycle. In addition, the students were able to go outside in search of butterflies as part of the lesson and thus view the insects in their natural environment. In a video, the teachers also showed the children the path from egg to butterfly again in fast motion.
After the caterpillars finally pupated in the classroom, the students were able to watch and help hang the pupae in the aviaries so that the butterflies could later hatch from them. While viewing the caterpillars and cocoons, the classes worked together to collect descriptions of the insects' appearance and impressions, which the children then integrated into poems they wrote themselves and later presented.
At the end of the project, the classes were able to watch the butterflies hatch from the cocoons and release the animals together in the Playgarden.
Story contributed by Mr Fabian Barth, Supervision Team
SECONDARY
Frames for artwork
In 2022, ArtsLab students contributed artwork centred on the theme “Home” for the Bensheim Hospiz. The frames were supplied by friends of siss.
SECONDARY
Chess Tournament – Hessen
In April 2022, four students from the Secondary Branch participated in the Hessischer Schulschach Mannschaftswettbewerb in Karben. The students joining the Group III .competition (14 years old or younger) were: Alexander Merz, Divyam Chaajed, Rares Munteanu and Martin de Boer.
The students were very motivated because in the previous years they ranked 4th in this competition. Unfortunately, this year the team scored 2 ½ points out of a maximum 5, ending with a ranking of 8th position out of 16. The Oberhörsel School remained undefeated through the competition and won the trophy.
Thanks to the friends of siss for covering the students' transportation expenses to the tournament.
We carry on supporting our Team and wish them success in the future!
Story contributed by Mr Cristian Munteanu, Physics Teacher, Secondary Branch
"In this work it was shown that the so-called wet chemical route via the oxidation of graphite and subsequent reduction does not lead to graphene, but to more or less multilayered amorphous carbon with many defects. This is shown by RAMAN and electron micrographs (SEM), which were made for the students by the company Merck, Darmstadt and the TU Darmstadt. Many publications,
even in high-ranking journals, claim that this is a way to produce graphene. But single-layer graphene, for example, can only be produced using the CVD process (CVD= Chemical Vapour Deposition). However, such partially oxidised graphene oxides can be used as composite materials with conductive polymers in photovoltaics as whole conductors. Such application possibilities were
pointed out by the students."
After the three young researchers were honoured as Hessian state winners in the Chemistry category, they presented their work to the expert jury in the National Finals of the Jugend Forscht competition held from 26-29 May in Lübeck. Myla Hardmann, one of the three national finalists, describes her impressions as follows:
"On Thursday, May 29th, we travelled by train from Frankfurt to Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein, where the 57th Jugend Forscht National Competition was taking place. When we arrived after several hours, we were immediately allowed into the Music and Congress Hall to set up our stand among the more than 100 others. From above, we could look down on all the rows of stands, which were sorted by subject, and at that moment it really became clear to us how lucky we were to have made it this far.
The following day were the important jury discussions. We presented our project "Graphene-like super materials - can it be more environmentally friendly?" to the chemistry jury, who then asked us lots of tricky questions about our experiments. In our free time, we had the chance to look at the many other projects, learn a lot of new things and exchange ideas with young people from all over Germany.
The award ceremonies took place over the weekend. There was great live music, very tasty food and many funny moments."
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Thanks to the friends of siss, Mr Mencia was able to join and support the students along the final trek of their two year experiment.
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Story contributed by Mr Laín Mencía Martínez
Three Secondary Branch students from the MINT Centre received a special award in 2022: Prize for Research work in the field of chemical Nanotechnology​, given by the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie im Verband der Chemischen Industrie e.V., at the National Finals of the Jugend Forscht competition.
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Myla Hardman, Marta Lean and Anna Schwarz spent almost two years researching at the MINT Centre on their project: Graphene-like super materials - can it be more environmentally friendly?
Dietmar Scherr, who supervised the project together with Laín Mencía Martínez, describes what the project was all about:
Jugend forscht Competition
SECONDARY
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PRIMARY
Bookcases
In 2022, we purchased new bookcases for classroom reading books.
SECONDARY
Art supplies
In 2021, Art supplies were provided to make repairs to the Secondary Atrium steps as well as to decorate the Library windows.
SECONDARY
Conrad Challenge Finals
One of our 2021-22 Year 8 students, Aarav Garg, qualified to the finals of the Conrad Challenge, a purpose-driven innovation competition for students across the world aged 13-18. Participants consisted of groups of 2-5 students who had to come up with an original business idea covering 1 out of 5 categories. There were approximately 1000 teams from across the world presenting the case. The run up to the top was through 3 rounds, namely the investor pitch, the business plan and the innovation summit.
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The journey started in October 2021, with 5 members in Aarav’s team that prepared a proposal under the “Aerospace and Aviation” category. They proposed a space telecommunication system, which they called ‘SSLAIT’ for Solar System Locations and Interplanetary Telecommunication.
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The first round was responding to the request for a business plan by answering a detailed questionnaire sent by the Conrad organization. After the idea was accepted, they wrote an in-depth technical concept report, a business prospectus and recorded a presentation of their idea. For the second round, their technical concept and business plan was rated among the top 10 and the team was invited to the virtual finals. The registration fee was supported by the friends of siss and Aarav is grateful towards the faculty for their support.
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Story contributed by Mr Ankur Garg
PRIMARY
New Roofing for the Playgarden
In 2021, funds raised from the Green Classroom online fundraiser which friends of siss opened via Bildungsspender.de/siss, was allocated towards some much needed repair in the outdoor kitchen area of the Playgarden.
PRESCHOOL
CD/USB Players
Story times on demand! The friends of siss provided the Preschool with 3 CD/USB players in 2021.
SECONDARY
Art Supplies
In 2021, Secondary students decided to add some color to the building and created artwork to decorate the classroom doors. The art supplies were paid for by friends of siss.
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
Hygiene and First Aid Supplies
Throughout the Corona pandemic, friends of siss provided the paper towels and plastic bags that were necessary for the hygienic disposal of the used test kits at both branches.
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Separately, ice packs and disinfectant wipes were provided to the Primary branch as basic first aid supplies.
PRESCHOOL
Mud Kitchen
In 2020, preschool students gained a new outdoor play station so they could engage in pretend and messy play by cooking with mud, sand and water.
PRIMARY
Craft Supplies
Art and craft supplies were given to Primary for a variety of projects in 2020.
PRIMARY
Reading wallets
To kickstart their reading journey at SISS, 1st graders borrow booklets from their classroom library to take home and practice reading with their parents. In 2020, each 1st grader received a reading wallet sponsored by friends of siss. The wallets provided students with a sturdy way to transport their materials and helped them keep their booklets and reading journals organized in one place.
SECONDARY
Read-a-Thon
The 2020 “Read to Breathe” Read-a-Thon – student initiative to raise funds for oxygen equipment for Covid patients – supported by printing flyers and coordinating donations to GiveIndia.
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In 2020, friends of siss supported the "Read to Breathe" Read-a-Thon – a student-led initiative to raise funds for oxygen equipment for COVID-19 patients – by printing flyers and coordinating donations to GiveIndia.
We commend all student readers who together were able to raise an incredible total of just over €250!
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This is a great example of how your contributions to friends of siss help students make a difference!
SECONDARY
Pinboard
Until 2023, emails and reminders of upcoming events sent to Secondary branch families were summarised in the online pinboard. The project began as a parent volunteer initiative, but in 2020 the friends of siss converted this to an online CAS project.
PRESCHOOL
Letterland
In 2020, Letterland teaching resources were refreshed to replace the well loved set used by previous years of little hands. Letterland publishes award-winning Early Years and Key Stage 1 resources for teaching foundational literacy skills, phonics, spelling and grammar.
SECONDARY
Timetables
Timetables were provided to the students at the beginning of the year to help them keep an overview of their lessons. An editable version is also available in the download section of our website.
Website Launch
ALL BRANCHES
The friends of siss online presence is being updated and improved all the time. In 2020 the website was launched with the creative help of a parent volunteer! The site continues to be maintained by parent volunteers.