The support center “Schule im Albertpark” in Dresden helps children and young people to find their way into the language. But it is not just language experts who teach here, but above all a team with a lot of heart and humor. Headmaster Uwe Hempel and deputy Antje Leisner talk about their dream school.
Headmaster Uwe Hempel
The “School in Albertpark” Dresden support center is idyllically located in the countryside, in the middle of the Dresden Heath, between numerous trees and the twittering of birds. “Here we deal primarily with children who have difficulties speaking or with language development and with everything that has to do with language in general,” explains headmaster Uwe Hempel, who took over the school in 1992.
Antje Leisner, deputy headteacher
Around 200 to 220 pupils study at the main school in Albertpark. In addition, there are almost 100 children who are looked after in smaller classes with a maximum of 12 pupils at the primary school branches in Gorbitz (grades 1 to 4) and Prohlis (grades 1 and 2). “For the children who came to us a little later or who need a little longer, we have a branch for grades 5 and 6 in Löbtau at the 36th high school. The colleagues there have been working together for more than 20 years and we always find pretty good ways to work together to provide inclusive care for the pupils in grades 7, 8 and 9,” says deputy head teacher Antje Leisner.
What does a language support center actually do?
“We teach like a normal primary or secondary school – but with a speech therapy perspective. That means: we take the children’s problems into account in the lessons from the very beginning. We pay particular attention to how we can teach them to read and write. Because that is a fundamental fact in people’s lives and children with speech disabilities have very special problems with it,” says Hempel.
“In addition to the normal lessons that are held at regular schools, we also have what are known as ‘support lessons’. These are primarily mother tongue lessons. Depending on the severity of their speech disorder, the children receive special support in this area. We hope that they will soon be able to leave our school. Because we are a ‘transition school’. You don’t come here to stay forever. You come here to pass through and return to the regular area.”
There is art therapy here!
“We are an open school and offer our children various GTA offers. This includes, among other forms of therapy, art therapy, for example. We are particularly fond of this,” reports Hempel happily. “The ‘KunstRaum’ was created here. This is an offer that works with children in a special way using art therapy – and it has been around since 2005.”
The artistic-therapeutic offer is implemented by Friedericke Altmann, a qualified art therapist. “I started my concept at the school almost 20 years ago. I was once a student here at the special needs center. I stuttered.”
What happens in the »KunstRaum?«
The art room is a space that offers children space, a variety of materials and support. Objects and pictures can be touched and experienced. The focus is on working alongside the process using creative methods.
Antje Leisner and art therapist Friedericke Altmann
“I built the art room with a lot of support from the school management and colleagues, but also from outside,” says Altmann enthusiastically. “In my work, it is important to me to offer support to the teachers. To do this, I make my broad range of experience available. I have been working with children aged 0 to 14 for 20 years and am familiar with the various stages of development, as well as deficits and problems. At the same time, I always look to see where my colleagues are in their educational mission and what I can contribute to fulfilling it.”
»I want to give the children in the art space the opportunity to feel heard and seen in a good way, to channel ‘overwhelming’ emotions into other channels. It’s good that art and its creative means exist for this.«
»Because I work with children who are not sufficiently connected to language and cannot understand context, I first take them back to the time of kindergarten, i.e. to haptic things, such as touch and very different materials. I need to know which child copes better with which material. Through this kind of ‘rediscovery’ of one’s own body, of skin contact, I control the impulses to speak. At the same time, the materials used bring up emotions. These are needed in order to understand the child, to understand one’s own feelings, and to learn to articulate them. This brings us to the mission of the school: the children should learn to talk about themselves.
These are the principles. On the one hand, fine and gross motor skills – touch, haptics, pressure and force – and on the other hand, emotionality, social connection, the integration of the self into the community. When language doesn’t work, it is often these important pillars that don’t work. My job is to rediscover them together with the teachers – through creativity, through works of art or theatrical things. Together we try to find a way to the child.«
Moments that remain in your memory
“Being a teacher or headmaster is fun. Working with children keeps you young. It is sometimes more strenuous than it used to be, but I still notice that I enjoy working with children, helping them, developing them,” sums up Uwe Hempel with shining eyes. “It is a really, really great joy to send the students off after two, three, sometimes four years. They often stand in front of us with their parents and have tears in their eyes: ‘It was incredibly beneficial to have been here. We are so glad that we did it.’ It is a beautiful moment and a thank you that comes back and I feel it in my heart every time. That is what I live for,” says Uwe Hempel, moved.
“The move from Maxim-Gorki-Strasse to Dresden’s Albertpark in 1999 also remains in my memory as a particularly beautiful moment. The nature and peace that surround us here in abundance help the children to unwind and settle in. We also look back fondly on our school partnerships with Rostock and Balingen. We have worked very well with the two locations for many years and have also laid the foundations for cross-state cooperation. That has brought us a lot,” adds the headteacher.
The support center is also great because …
“At our school, I really appreciate the fact that we have a team of colleagues who are keen to continue their education. We also work closely with the University of Leipzig to stay up to date with the latest findings in speech therapy. For example, there was a project at the University of Leipzig on the topic of reading for the first time. The students at our school were examined to determine how well they read and which reading courses might be suitable or could be modified in lessons for children with speech disabilities,” adds colleague Antje Leisner. “There is also a reading and writing course for grades 1 that two colleagues at our school developed themselves.”
Art on school grounds
In collaboration with the artist Rupprecht Matthies, our school also developed the project “Words to Lean On”. “The children from all grades wrote down their favorite words and then these were projected – some wanted sculptures, others can be found as written pictures on the walls of our support center,” reports Leisner.
More about the Language Support Centre
Further information is available on the Website of the support center ready.
