2018
As in previous academic years, all class and school representatives as well as two student tutors from a high school in Buchloe (Gymnasium Buchloe) visited the “Haus der Familie” (Family House) in Memhölz on October 18 and 19.

Once they had arrived at the accommodation, all the students moved into their rooms after receiving a brief introduction to the premises. A short ice-breaker game also took place again this year. Afterwards, the pupils from the lower and middle grades sat together with two liaison teachers Mr. Pitzl and Ms. Geiger to deal intensively with the topics of “problems at the school” and “events”. The pupils from the upper grades dealt with the planning of their graduation ceremonies. As every year, the fifth graders received an introduction to the role of class speaker. Following lunch, the students continued where they had left off. The results were then presented in the afternoon. Before dinner, all participants listened to a presentation in connection with a discussion on bullying from the school psychologist Mr. Christ. After dinner, the youngsters enjoyed a nighttime hike followed by an evening of games. The next morning, the results of the seminar were presented to the Deputy Principal Mr. Pfaffendorf and discussed. Afterwards, all the students returned to Buchloe following two productive and fun days. A big thank you goes once again to the Frank Hirschvogel Foundation and the Booster Club of the school for financing the seminar, so that free participation was possible for the pupils.

On October 24, 2018, the annual class speaker seminar of Dominikus Zimmermann High School (Dominikus-Zimmermann-Gymnasium) took place in Memhölz. At the three-day meeting,

important events and problems in school life are addressed and suggestions for improvement are put forward. After an ice-breaking activity on the first evening, the second day was spent listing all problems as well as positive aspects on posters. The problems were grouped into topic areas such as “toilets”, “canteen” or “upper grade classes”. Each of these was then discussed in a dedicated work group.

On the third day, the topics were then discussed with the heads of the school and the canteen operators. They were all open to our improvement suggestions and signalized their support. This exchange of opinion about our daily school life enabled us students to seize the opportunity to actively improve things that matter to us, and we were even able to see the implementation of some of our requests (such as the installation of a traffic mirror).

Sophie Fischer (School Speaker)

2017
All class representatives, six school representatives, two tutors and two liaison teachers at a high school in Buchloe (Gymnasium Buchloe) spent two days from March 16-17 at the “Haus der Familie” in Memhölz.
On the first day, they came together in five working groups to develop important ideas for this academic year as well as future ones. On the second day, the pupils presented their results to the School Principal Dr. Bogner and thus had the opportunity to bring their own ideas to the table for the development of the school.
The Frank Hirschvogel Foundation assumed part of the costs for the seminar participants.

On October 26, 2017 it was time once again for our annual class representative seminar in Memhölz. All class representatives from grades eight through ten, the senior grade representatives and the members of the Events Work Group (AKV) traveled together with our counseling teachers Ms. Kühne and Mr. Schwarzenbach to this two-day event.
Following our arrival and a few ice-breaker activities, we set about making a list of concerns and suggestions from the individual classes. The problems, suggestions for improvement as well as commendable achievements were all written up on posters. With renewed energy after the lunch break we divided up the participants into work groups. These groups focused on the named problems and selected issues at our school, such as “school building and schoolyard”, “sale of food” or “breaktime”. Each group discussed the issues and looked for potential solutions and improvements. These were then presented in the evening to the other participants.
Once all the topics had been discussed and potential solutions developed, everyone had the chance to play and chat, thereby getting to know each other better.
The next day we were fresh and invigorated as we prepared for the visit from our school directors, represented by Mr. Walter and Mr. Dössinger. All of the topics were presented in detail and discussed with them. Mr. Walter and Mr. Dössinger were open to our suggestions for improvement and signalized their support in many areas. This exchange of opinions was a great opportunity for us students to make an active contribution to enhancing life at our school. Unfortunately, the time flew by much too quickly at the class representative seminar. Nevertheless, we left Memhölz with the feeling that we had developed great suggestions for improvement and that all the participants had got to know each other even better.
We are all looking forward to our next trip to Memhölz!