The new scientific wing of the St. Paulus Catholic School in Hamburg-Billstedt offers the latest technology in bright, friendly rooms. A few weeks ago, the red brick building was still a comprehensive construction site – with open pipes, chipped plaster surfaces, removed ceiling panels and visible electrical installations. After the specialist rooms were completely renovated from the shell of the building, headmaster Michael Stüper was now able to invite everyone on a first tour of the primary and district school building on Öjendorfer Weg.
Previously, Hamburg’s Vicar General Father Sascha-Phillip Geißler opened the “exciting ambience for completely new teaching experiences” with a courageous cut through a red ribbon and a prayer of blessing – with new furniture, new experiment tables, laboratory sinks and mobile demonstration fume cupboards. Together with school department head Dr. Christopher Haep and representatives from foundations, school associations and parishes offered Stüper a first insight into the ultra-modern specialist rooms for chemistry, physics and crafts.
“With this renovation we are enabling first-class educational work in the natural sciences. And at the same time, we are creating an important prerequisite for further successful work in all-day schools,” explained Haep and added: “The high level that we enable here in the specialist rooms through technology shows our demand for excellent education, especially at our district schools. “With considerable investments, not only the Billstedt location has been comprehensively developed in recent years with a sports hall, a new school building and now with the scientific wing. At the second district school location – the Catholic Bonifatiusschule in Wilhelmsburg – completely new framework conditions would arise as a result of the new building plans that have begun for a scientific extension building.
The conversion of the Billstedt Nawi specialist wing was made possible together with numerous supporters – including the Ingeborg Gross Foundation, the Swisslife Foundation, a Hamburg family foundation, and the school support association – as well as thanks to funding from the Authority for Schools and Vocational Training of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg . In total, more than two million euros were invested in the new specialist theme house, around 400,000 euros of which went into the interior. “With this great support, we offer exemplary and future-oriented perspectives for our district students,” said Vicar General Geißler. Headmaster Michael Stüper is looking forward to a “learning environment that enables students to discover scientific connections in a playful and experimental way.” Stüper is convinced that modern technology and well-thought-out room design would “make science lessons an experience.”
