Education in Wachtberg: School welfare in Berkum expanded

Multiple events in classrooms can create difficult situations for students and teachers. The reports of the animator Hannah Wirfs and Hendrik Heimbach, principal of the Hans-Dietrich-Genscher-School (HDG) in Berkum, in the last education committee showed that many of these can be caught up with professional school social work. The offers skilfully used by two newly appointed employees make everyday school life easier.

As diverse as the German educational landscape is, life at HDG is just as multifaceted. Around 35 percent of the young people trained in Wachtberg come from Bad Godesberg, Oedingen, Remagen or from refugee families, Heimbach estimated at the request of Alina Lägel (SPD). Further training requests arrive regularly from the Wachtberg branches of the Godesheim Evangelical Youth Welfare Service. According to Heimbach, it is not always possible to enroll children and young people in the HDG for the entire half of the school year. Fluctuation due to a change of residence undoubtedly brings additional challenges.

In order to be able to cope with all the challenges, the municipality submitted an application for funding for school social work. The force is expected to be established in addition to the existing one-and-a-half post positions for school social workers at HDG. Since February of this year, thanks to the approved subsidy of over 27,000 euros, the municipal educators Claudia Schmidt and Hannah Wirfs have each worked six hours a week in the school social service. In order to get even better qualifications for this task, both are participating in a training course organized by the Cologne district government. In committee, Wirfs reported on the experiences of the first few months.

According to Wirfs, the first site meeting clarified the great need during the school years. Outside of the holidays, children like to participate in workshops. Not only the structure, but also the themes deal with many everyday topics of young people. For example, a workshop is currently underway addressing beauty ideals that are highly prized by TikTok and similar media, but are unattainable, the youth worker reported.

As personal relationships with students develop more and more, the two specialists also act as contact persons for students, their parents and teachers, among other things providing advice on school topics. Personal issues such as motivational difficulties, turbulence in one’s emotional world or domestic problems could also be addressed in one-on-one meetings, Wirfs said. The goal is always to strengthen peaceful coexistence, students, communication and class cohesion.

Regardless of strengthening the school climate, school social work is important in everyday life when difficult situations arise with individual children in the classroom or on the school playground, Heimbach reported. “If a teacher is teaching 23 kids and there’s a special situation with one kid, then she can’t leave 22 kids alone,” she said matter-of-factly. The school welfare provides an opportunity to defuse the situation and work through the problem with the affected child.