Welcome

Well, aren't you lucky? You've just clicked into one of the greatest little schools in the whole Westmuensterland! If you've got a minute, we'd like to tell you more about it. Okay, here we go ...

Our school, the "Herta-Lebenstein-Realschule - Realschule der Stadt Stadtlohn" (Stadtlohn City's Junior High School or Stadtlohn City's Secondary Modern School), has been around for more than 150 years. Long time, isn't it! Of course most of our teachers are a great deal younger, and even the school building is only 40 years old.

Our school was first founded in 1865 as a Latin School (how boring!) and was attended by only 10-15 male pupils (even worse!). In 1915 it was taken over by the town and since 1922 English became the main foreign language taught (great!).

In 1953 we became a state recognized Junior High and at the present there are 500 pupils of both sexes, with a female majority, attending the school. No less than 45 teachers (shes and hes) do their best to get our pupils off to a good start.

Years ago, our school was the only one of its kind in this area, providing a general basic secondary education, with young people attending it from miles around. Over the past decades, many new schools of the same type have been founded in several other surrounding towns, so that now most of the pupils at our school are local boys and girls, aged between 10 and 17.

By the way, in case you just happen not to know where Stadtlohn is, it's a wonderful little town with about 20.000 inhabitants right in the middle of the scenic Westmuensterland. We're about 10 minutes drive from the Dutch border and more or less half way between London and Berlin or Oslo and Marseille. Where these two lines meet, that's about where we are, got it? If that's too difficult, you can also just have a look at the map.

More info on the town of Stadtlohn is available via www.stadtlohn.de, but you gotta sprechen deutsch!

Now back to our school. You can compare it to a junior high school in the U.S.A. or a secondary modern school in England. Most pupils come to us after four years at primary school and stay on for a total of six years. Some, however, "like it so much", that they add an extra year or two. After successfully finishing the 10th class, they then go on to further education, vocational schooling or get jobs directly.

The main foreign language taught is English, but many also learn French (parlez-vous) or Dutch (Kannitverstaan). Of course all other "normal" subjects like mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, history, art etc. are also taught here. There are voluntary work-groups in Spanish, painting, choir singing, dancing, tennis and soccer.

"All work and no play ..." however, so there are also extra-curricular activities including class get-togethers and trips to other countries such as France, Austria, England and the Netherlands. Our school also has a special partnership-program with an orphanage in Wojcieszow, Poland.

Now that you know something about us, we'd really love to hear something about you and your school! How about sending us an E-mail to herta-lebenstein-realschule@stadtlohn.de? It would be great if we could contact each other regularly. We haven't got all the answers, but we certainly have one for you!

Bye now and till later.