Dear friends of Stella School!
We have started the new school year with momentum – with over 300 children in Vienna – in kindergarten, elementary school and high school -, with just under 60 children in Seebenstein and a small brave group of 8 children in the new elementary school in Salzburg.
The new building at the DonauCity site is growing, in a few days the topping-out ceremony will take place – a great jey for all of us!
All of this presents us with major challenges, both financial and otherwise. I want to thank all the supporters who have helped us so generously. The next period will require a great deal of financial commitment, which is why we continue to ask for your generous help. Good news at this point: It seems very likely that from 2024 onwards you will also be able to deduct donations to private schools from your taxable income in Austria. If you are a resident of Germany, you can do this already now through our German account of the “Stella Foundation” (www.stellafoundation.de).
But the most important thing for us is to see how children and parents flourish in the school and help each other, how new friendships are brought and how we grow together more and more as a school community….
I hope you will enjoy reading the newsletter articles, as you will again find out a great deal about what is happening at our schools.
Sincerely yours
Heidi Burkhart & the team of Stella International School
Contents
- Stella Salzburg
- Stella Seebenstein Kindergarten
- Stella Seebenstein Elementary School
- Stella Seebenstein Middle School
- Kindergarten (Vienna)
- After-school care (Vienna)
- Elementary school (Vienna)
- Secondary school (Vienna)
Stella Salzburg
Stella Seebenstein Kindergarten
Marie-Christine Muster has been leading our kindergarten team since September. We are happy to welcome such a competent and friendly addition to the Stella Team Seebenstein.
We love to be in our beautiful garden and ride the wheels and scooters. For this reason, we have received new helmets for our safety. We are very proud of them.
Together with Sonja and Marie-Christine we visit the Atrium every Friday and are amazed every time anew about the love of the Good Shepherd for us. The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in Level 1 (3-6 year olds) is a wonderful addition to help children experience and touch the Word of God.
English is also a highlight for our youngest students in kindergarten every week. We welcome Sandra Thompson to our team as a native speaker. With her, the children learn to name everyday things through play.
Stella Seebenstein Elementary School
The first day of school is very exciting, and not only for the board class. However, the warm welcome by the educators allowed all children to arrive well.
The beautiful weather allowed us to hold the first music lesson in our beautiful school garden. We sang along with the birds to the lively sounds of the ukulele. 😊
Handicraft lessons of the 3rd and 4th grade: Students are busy making their bookmarks for the school year planner that will accompany them throughout the year. In the planner, students independently note their homework, important dates, and joyful events.
Everything has its time! Now that the vacations are over, it’s nice for the students to study again and dedicate themselves to one thing at a time. Here we see a few diligent students doing free work in math and German.
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, children enjoy a healthy snack at the campus. The snack plan is determined by seasonal and regional offer. Right now we have eaten the last watermelons, tomatoes and cucumbers from our school garden. Pumpkins were also harvested many, so we will soon enjoy a delicious homemade pumpkin soup. In this way we thank Sabine Graf and Maria Kaya for the great organization and loving preparation every week.
On the feast of the Nativity of Mary, we celebrated the school service in our house chapel with Dr. Thomas Kenner. Many parents, grandparents and siblings also came to thank God for the good start to school!
Stella Seebenstein Middle School
Together with the 3. and 4th grade elementary school, the middle school went on pilgrimage. Our destination was the pilgrimage church Maria Schutz at the foot of the Sonnwendstein. After a short but tiring ascent, we celebrated Holy Mass with Fr. Thomas Höflich of the Passionists, and afterwards we went for refreshments at the Kirchenwirt – a Klosterkrapfen. This experience strengthened our class community and we asked the Blessed Mother for protection and blessings for the new school year.
The first drawing lesson of the middle school: the students searched the school building for different surfaces and beautiful patterns to transfer them with frottage, a graphic technique, a surface relief of an object by means of a pencil on a sheet of paper stretched over it. Afterwards, the students were allowed to glue the pattern pieces together to form a ship.
Kindergarten (Vienna)
September in the kindergarten is all about settling in. We welcomed many new children and families, which of course makes us very happy.
In addition to getting to know each other, making friends, and exploring group space, fall is also slowly moving into the groups. The children are with great commitment to work and then enjoy the decorated group room
The first classes dealt in religion with how God is. We made our first poster together. The theme was: The Lord is my shepherd.
After-school care (Vienna)
Our after-school care is growing. We have opened a fourth group this year and we are now allowed to care for more than 100 children in the afternoon.
In addition to meals and homework, we try to make the afternoons varied with the children and offer them a wide variety of activities. The children especially like to occupy themselves with creative tasks. But visits to playgrounds in the surrounding area or excursions are also very popular. The Lily Group has already been to the Folklore Museum this month on the topic of “From Grain to Bread.”
Elementary school (Vienna)
In mid-September, the 2a was in the reading city. We read, played and laughed a lot!
In Religious Education, the 2nd grade dealt with God’s promise to Abraham. We made stars because we too are Abraham’s descendants and God says to Abraham, “Look up to heaven and count the stars, if you can count them! And He said to him, “Your descendants will be so numerous. I will give you blessings in abundance…”
Already at the 2nd start of school the 3b starts with a trip to the water school. In addition to great experiments, short lectures and a movie, they spend the break on a large meadow thanks to beautiful weather. On the movement, good humor and good food are not missing. The rocks in the mountains, as well as the water cycle and rivers are the topic today. Finally, the school class gets to go up the water tower in the 10th district.
Last Friday, the 1st, 2nd and 4th grades were at the school sports day. The children were able to learn about and try out many different sports.
At the end of September, the 4th grade went to the Prater School Traffic Garden. There, the children attended the first of three appointments for the voluntary bicycle test.
Secondary school (Vienna)
After the boys of the 3rd grade were a whole hour of sports and sweating, a little fun was also allowed 😉
The first grades are off to an energetic start to the new school year in technology and design. They folded and designed their own personalized prayer cubes out of paper.
The 2A learned about the possibilities and how much fun sewing by hand can be in technical and textile crafts. To get to know each other, we sewed little button-eyed monsters out of fabric and felt, which can also be used as great pins.
In the Museum of Art History we had a lot of fun. In three groups we examined five different paintings. Among them was the homecoming of the prodigal son. I found this picture very interesting because the prodigal son is depicted in a very exciting way.
– written by Jakob Lobnig
The 3A class is currently working on the basics of how to depict people and movements. The exercises used a wide variety of techniques: pencil drawings, charcoal, watercolors, and tearing and painting over newspapers, bringing the renderings almost to life.
In visual education, the 5A class devoted itself to the topic of portraits. We took portrait photos and in the next step we painted over them colorfully in the spirit of expressionism. The results already decorate the classroom.
In an experiment, students in 5A passed a straw through the bottle cap and sealed it. As soon as you pour hot water on the air in the upper part of the bottle, it expands and pushes the water out of the bottle through the tube.
In the third week of school, the third grade, together with two class teachers, decided to explore the Danube Island by bike. We rented the bikes right next to our future school building, so we were able to see the construction progress right on the spot.
We really enjoyed this late summer bike trip and look forward to the fall of 2024 when we will move into the new building.
