Mission statement of our pedagogical work

Georgschule Epe is an elementary school run by the city of Gronau. It was established in 1969 as a Catholic confessional school.

Our elementary school is a place of education and a house of living and learning, where all children can feel accepted and comfortable.

As a school of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, our objectives are guided by the state constitution and the guidelines and curricula applicable to the state. At the same time, children at our school are educated according to the principles of the Christian confession:

• At our school, the children should learn to treat each other with respect, tolerance and helpfulness.

• Living and learning together with the appropriate inclusion of cultural and religiously different life experiences should contribute to consciously experiencing cultural diversity and being open to other religious confessions and cultures. At the same time, the children can experience their faith here and live with it.

• In the educational lessons, the children practice judging and dealing responsibly with what they have learned. The world is made clear as God's creation, which must be respected and preserved. Furthermore, an attempt is made to draw attention to the endangered creation, to discord and injustice, both near and far, and to counteract them in some way.

• Children should learn to deal with each other peacefully. Violence in our society has increased in recent years. Children's behavior has also changed. They show more ruthlessness and more self-centeredness, while charity, helpfulness, compassion and an awareness of shared responsibility have declined. Children should be enabled to assert themselves and to defend themselves if necessary, but also to control their aggression, to resolve conflicts peacefully and not to run away from them. To this end, consideration, yielding, forgiving and making amends must be made conscious and be part of daily interaction.

• The task of turning individuals into social beings is becoming more and more important in our pedagogical work as a result of the changes in childhood. Our students should learn to deal with their own needs. Otherwise, recognition and affection cannot be experienced in the classroom and trusting bonds cannot be built.

• Our children should experience and develop democratic behavior. They should learn to recognize and observe agreed rules of togetherness and be prepared to work together with other children and help each other. A child will find security and safety in his or her class if he or she also contributes to the community.

• In our school, each child is to be supported according to his or her abilities and put on the path to learning. To this end, the child's individual prerequisites are to be taken into account and further developed. Individual learning opportunities help the child to bring his abilities, skills and knowledge into the learning process and to advance.

• Living and learning together at our school should be enjoyable for everyone. In our work, we want to enable the children to have a school time that they experience as personally satisfying and that maintains their enjoyment of lifelong learning. A trusting tone and a personal atmosphere in which every child can feel accepted, a varied school life, intensive cooperation with parents and learning with head, heart and hand should contribute to this.

• All children should be given a solid foundation for further learning. This also requires education in the willingness to make an effort and motivation to achieve.

• The children should be stimulated in an encouraging way to think creatively and imaginatively, to help plan and design.

• Opportunities are given to students at our school to practice systematic forms of learning.

 If our school wants to be a living organism and not a rigid institution, then all those involved - teachers, parents, students, school supervisors and school boards - must constantly set out on a new path so that we can approach these goals that bind us together.