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We are running online at the moment due to Covid-19 school closures. All our sessions are taking place on zoom.
Check out our NEW additional online courses for beginners to bilingual! They are active and fun just like our Saturday School sessions, and everyone can take part - no need to be a Saturday School member.
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At the German Saturday School Leicester, we learn German through activities - we play games, invent new things, cook and bake, do arts and crafts, and history and geography! We strive to create a fun and stimulating environment where children, young people and adults alike enjoy themselves and learn German by using it actively and purposefully in reading, writing, listening and speaking - even at break time.
Every term stands under a special theme, and all groups will adapt their activities to the current theme. Our groups are small throughout the Saturday School for lots of individual attention and interaction. There is a group for everyone - no matter if beginner or bilingual!
The German Saturday School Leicester leads to a German GCSE, A-level, or an internationally recognised telc exam.
Dates & Times
1st, 3rd and 5th Saturday in the month (only term time)
Morning: 10.00 - 12.00am or
Afternoon: 1.30 - 3.30pm
Autumn term 2020
5th Sept, 19th Sept, 3rd Oct, 17th Oct, 31st Oct, 7th Nov, 21st Nov, 5th Dec, 19th Dec
Spring term 2021
16th Jan, 30th Jan, 6th Feb, 6th March, 20th March
No Saturday School on the 20th Feb, ski week in Switzerland
Summer term 2021
17th April, 15th May, 29th May, 5th June, 19th June, 3rd July
Groups
Küken - chicks Parent and child group for German speakers, 0-3 years FULL
Spatzen - sparrows Pre-School/Reception/Year 1 from 4 years
Raben - ravens Year 2/Year 3
Schwalben - swallows Year 4/Year 5
Falken - falcons Year 6/Year 7
GCSE group Year 8/Year 9
A-level group Year 10 - Year 13
Eulen - owls (adults - intermediates morning, beginners afternoon)
Special training for German beginners.
Costs are £19 per Saturday. Küken only pay £6.
Young people from 14 years can be helpers!
Teachers:
Bettina, Silke W., Silke F., Frauke, Katja, Barbara, Steffi, Karin, Anne, Gabi, Julia & Marianne
Helpers:
Sandy, Jasmin, Heike, Liana, Heidi, Sarah & Margaret
All our teachers are native speakers and carry a recent DBS check.
Location
Countesthorp Leysland Community College (LE8 5PR), Youth Club
The DSS Leicester Teamm
Marianne Siegfried-Brookes,
School Head
Marianne is the founder and organiser of the DSS Leicester. She is an experienced primary and secondary school teacher with a MSc in Secondary Education from the University of Zurich. She has been teaching bilingual children and adults since 1999, first in Sweden, and since 2004 in the UK. Marianne believes in an active approach to learning, engaging the students on all levels - intellectual, social, emotional, creative, physical, ... Her own two children are trilingual and speak English, German and Schwiizerdütsch :)
Eva Jäger,
Administration- and
Finance Manager
Eva has been administration- and finance manager at the DSS Leicester since 2019. She moved from Franconia to the UK in 2015. Eva ran the Baby and Toddler Playgroup in Nottingham for over 4 years. Her 3 children grow up bilingual. On the Saturday School days Eva looks after the office at the DSS Leicester. From time to time she also teaches the Küken.
Silke Friedersdorff,
Spatzen- & Küken teacher
Silke studied education in Berlin, Germany, and has been working with children and teenagers both in the UK and in Germany for more than 20 years. Her own four children are bilingual.
Frauke Shiells,
GCSE teacher
Frauke was teaching our first adult course in the Vienna Druckers Café in Leicester. She has studied modern foreign languages in Giessen, Germany and been teaching German adult courses in the UK with different subjects since 2005.
Gabi Clough,
GCSE teacher
Gabi is an experienced and dedicated senior classes teacher. She has been teaching German and Spanish for the last 20 years in Scotland, Germany and England. Gabi has a lot of experience in German GCSE and A-Level. Her daughter passed the German A-Level in June 2019. She grows up bilingual.
Dr. Bettina Schock,
Spatzen- & Eulen teacher
Bettina came to the UK in 1996 to study for a PhD at Queen’s University Belfast. After a few years in the USA, she returned to the UK. Bettina’s 5-year old daughter loves the fact that she can speak German to her mum and English to her dad (sometimes mixing it together).
Silke Walker,
Eulen teacher
Silke has been living in the UK since 1993. She used to work as au pair here. She is now a mother of two and helps the at the local school with reading in Reception and Year 1.
Julia Sweeney,
Pinguin teacher
Julia is an experienced and dedicated teacher. She has been teaching German and French for the last 12 years in England. She has a lot of experience of teaching German GCSE and has been an A-Level specialist for 10 years.
Katja Reinhardt,
Raben teacher
Katja is a HLTA who teaches 3-18 year olds German in a variety of settings. She works in schools, tutors and runs Kinderclubs. She teaches the Raben in Leicester and founded Derby Saturday School for her 4 boys realising the importance and value for them to be part of a German Community.
Steffi Johnson,
Pinguin teacher
Steffi studied Engineering in Dresden and moved to the UK almost 20 years ago. Her two children were both born in the UK and are raised bilingual. Together with her children she has regularly visited German speaking play groups and has been helping out in organising some of these groups in the past.
Karin Garrie,
Schwalben teacher
Karin was born in Freiburg in Baden Wurttemberg and has moved to Nottingham in 1996. She has met her husband, an Englishman, and they live together in Nottingham with their four-years-old daughter.
During the week she teaches at the university.
Heidi Richter,
Spatzen teaching assistant
Heidi is 16 years old. She has been attending the German Saturday School Leicester for 6 years and now helps with the 3 to 6 year old's. She has recently done her German GCSE.
Sarah Brommer,
Raben teaching assistant
Sarah studied English and Italian literature at the University of Stuttgart. After a three-year stay in Montréal (Canada), she settled with her husband in Coventry in 2012. Their three sons grow up bilingual.
Heike Ruckruh,
Eulen teaching assistant
Heike studied and worked in Belgium before moving to the UK in 2004.
She is trilingual (D/E/F) and has worked both in customer service and as personal assistant using her language skills within multinational teams.
In the past, she used to tutor children and adults in English and German.
Her son grows up bilingually an is currently working towards his German GCSE at DSS Leicester.
Anne Honsel,
Substitute teacher
Anne is an experienced and dedicated primary school teacher. She has been teaching in the Early Years for the last 15 years.
She is currently teaching at the Languagekindergarten, and teaching French in KS2 at a local Primary School.
Anne believes in a developmental approach to learning, seeing the role of a teacher as a facilitator. Creativity and sensitivity to the child's needs and interests is at the heart of all meaningful interaction.
