How children want their school – Starnberg

In the picture of second-grader Valentina, the children can use a slide to leave their classroom, for Luis from the third grade, a playground without a soccer field is unthinkable, and in another picture children wave from the windows of a colorful school building while the smoke rises from the chimney the words “School is beautiful”.

During the past school year, the 230 girls and boys who are currently divided between the elementary schools in Weßling and Oberpfaffenhofen painted how they imagine their new school to be. This is currently only in the shell construction phase and will be built next to the sports field in Weßling. 35 selected pictures have now been printed on banners and hung on site fences by schoolchildren together with Rector Maria Streifinger, Mayor Michael Sturm, Rasso von Rebay (FW) municipal councilor and Florian Zarbo from the municipal company. Rebay had the picture idea. They are intended to beautify the site fence that will be in place along Meilinger Weg for the next few months. The remaining pictures will be hung in the two old school buildings.

In most of the pictures, the school building is very colourful, with warm colors such as red and orange predominating. “Children love energetic colours,” says Streifinger. While Valentina placed a cinema on the school grounds, other children drew a kiosk, some of which was larger than the school building and one student even topped it with a coke machine.

In many pictures, the school building moved into the background. The open spaces with great sports facilities dominated here. In addition to the obligatory soccer field, there are skate parks, climbing walls, giant trampolines, pools, one of which you can slide straight out of the classroom, and even a Formula 1 course and a frog pond, where the amphibians from the neighboring bypass can probably find refuge, have been painted . Butterflies and birds buzz around many a school building picture and in another picture a horse is standing in a paddock next to the school.

Seven-year-old Julika has let a stream with a mill wheel flow through the school grounds. “It could be used to generate electricity,” the girl explained. Third grader Lenni has been thinking about a safe way to school. A long staircase resembling a zebra crossing is laid across the streets in his picture. With Luis, school has also taken a back seat. The outdoor facilities dominate with a huge soccer field, because the eight-year-old is a passionate footballer and already plays in the club.

At 15 million euros, the new school building is the municipality’s largest construction project. Construction began in spring 2021 and if all goes well, the school could be ready for the start of the 2023 school year. The older elementary school students will not live to see the move. He thinks that’s a bit of a shame, nine-year-old Lenni admitted. But he will look at the new elementary school. Maybe some of the students’ ideas have been picked up, he hopes.

For years, the municipal councils worked on the school plans together with the teachers and the architects. But the students were also involved. “In the summer I went through all the classes with the model. The children were totally enthusiastic,” remembers Streifinger. The model appeared to the children like a doll’s house, where you could remove the roof and look inside the new school.

The three-stream school will offer space for 300 children in twelve classrooms. The classes are grouped together in “learning houses”. The classrooms are grouped around multifunctional “marketplaces”. The new school will probably not have a coke machine, and there are no plans for a swimming pool either. “But we campaigned for a theater and music room,” explains Streifinger. In addition, the teachers have enforced that there are four larger classrooms, for a “larger class or if an integration child brings a school companion,” says Streifinger.

The number of toilets has also been increased. “The teachers were intensively involved in the planning and found good compromises,” she says happily.

On the building board you can already see the image of a long building with a flat gabled roof and many wooden elements. Compared to the children’s pictures, it looks quite sober. However, the architects could still be inspired by the children’s drawings when painting the facade.