What do children need to enjoy learning and grow up healthy? More than just good marks and packed timetables, says Dr Christiane Desaive, a sports education specialist from Magdeburg. She aims to bring schools, nurseries and universities closer together and, through projects in Saxony-Anhalt, demonstrates how new ideas can be turned into everyday educational practice.
When people think of school, they usually picture classrooms, textbooks and exams. But what happens when a child turns up at school in the morning with a stomach ache? When they don’t feel at ease in their class or are afraid of making mistakes? In such cases, even the best lessons are of little help.
For Dr Christiane Desaive of the University of Magdeburg, one thing is therefore clear: a good education does not begin in the mind alone. It also requires physical and mental health, trust and people who listen to one another.
“Without physical and mental stability, learning cannot succeed,” says the sports educator, who trains trainee PE teachers in the field of sports science. For years, she has been exploring the question of how schools can become places where children not only acquire knowledge, but also feel at ease and discover their strengths.
In doing so, she does not focus solely on the pupils. Teachers and educational staff also need the right conditions to be able to do their jobs. And above all, sustainable relationships are needed. After all, people who feel seen, understood and taken seriously learn more easily.
However, Desaive is convinced that for this to happen, the education system must also change. Nurseries, schools, universities and other institutions still often operate in isolation from one another. Each goes its own way, even though they frequently face similar challenges.
“We need to think more collectively about education,” she urges. Examples of how this can work are already emerging in several places across Saxony-Anhalt.
When older pupils become mentors
Changing schools can feel like a leap into the deep end for children. New classrooms, unfamiliar teachers, older pupils in the corridors – and right in the middle of it all, the question: where do I actually belong?
At a school in Zielitz, the new Year 5 pupils are not left to deal with these uncertainties on their own. Here, there is a ‘student mentors’ club. Young people from higher year groups support the younger pupils, answer questions, help with problems and make it easier for them to settle in.
The idea behind it is simple: sometimes children find it easier to confide in an older pupil than in an adult.
The concept was developed in collaboration with the University of Magdeburg. Before the student mentors took on their roles, they received training for the task. The club launched for the first time at the start of the new school year, and the younger children are already making the most of what it has to offer.
The project is part of the ‘SchuleKitaUni’ initiative, through which Desaive brings together people and organisations that would otherwise have few points of contact: schools, nurseries, the university, vocational training providers, businesses and other partners from the region.
Together, they work on questions that go far beyond traditional classroom teaching. How can children maintain their mental wellbeing? How do they learn to take responsibility? How can democracy be experienced in everyday life? And how can young people discover their own abilities and career opportunities at an early stage?
The answers should not just be confined to policy documents. They should reach the places where children spend their everyday lives.
A school that puts the child first
In Klein Wanzleben, too, work is underway on a different vision of schooling. Under the leadership of Wolfgang Vogelsaenger, a school concept is being developed there designed to support children from nursery right through to leaving school.
The focus is not on whether all children achieve the same things at the same time. What matters far more is the skills, interests and needs that each individual child brings with them.
Grades and pressure to perform are to play a lesser role. Instead, the aim is to create a learning environment in which children can develop their strengths and progress at their own pace.
The University of Magdeburg intends to conduct scientific research into whether and how this will succeed. The researchers are monitoring the development of the concept, focusing, amongst other things, on the children’s mental health, physical activity and learning.
After all, a good idea alone does not make a good school. What matters is what it actually changes in everyday life.
A marketplace for new educational ideas
The University of Magdeburg campus also demonstrated just how much can be achieved when different people share their experiences. It hosted the second edition of the ‘School Development in Dialogue’ education fair.
Rather than simply discussing education through lectures, the event provided a space for encounters, conversations and collaborative experimentation. Twenty-four themed tables addressed issues that concern many educational institutions: mental health, self-determination and strengthening one’s own capacity for action – also known as empowerment – or dealing with digital media.
Visitors were able to get actively involved in workshops. Teachers met students, and educational professionals met academics. The Minister for Education, Jan Riedel, was also in attendance.
The youngest participants were particularly prominent this year. Nursery children had spent the morning exploring their own rights. They then presented what they had learnt at the Education Bazaar.
This brought to life a concept that also shapes Desaive’s work: children should not merely be the subject of educational debates. They should be given a voice of their own.
Change begins with connection
Whether it’s student representatives in Zielitz, a new school concept in Klein Wanzleben or the exchanges at the Education Bazaar: these projects are united by a common idea. Education improves when people work together beyond the boundaries of their own institutions.
For Desaive, this is not about one major reform that suddenly changes everything. Rather, it is about trying out new approaches in everyday life, learning from one another and building on tried-and-tested methods.
Her hope is that those involved will remain curious, strengthen relationships and view health not as a side issue, but as the foundation of successful education.
Perhaps that is why the school of the future will not begin with a new timetable or yet another textbook. Instead, it will begin with a simple question: what do children actually need to learn well and enjoy going to school?
