Observations of the school authorities concerning the well-being of the children of the Twelve Tribes for the Year 2013:

Excerpts from the

school record

of the Private Supplementary

School Klosterzimmern

The report in German, with page citations to the specific reports, may be found at this link:  Beobachtung der Schulbehörden.

 2013

Spiegel Online, Schule der “Zwölf Stämme” droht das Aus, April 18^th, 2013 (1288)

… The Ministry of Education and Culture considers closing the school for the coming school year. If this was the case, however, the reason for it would be a formality: The community has difficulties, to find certified teachers.

… At a meeting in the Ministry of Education and Culture on February 5^th, several members of the community admitted for the first time, to discipline their children with a stick, as it says in the report of the ministry of education and culture to the Landtag (state parliament) from the end of March.

“They referred to the Old Testament”, says Alfred Kanth, leader of the responsible Jugendamt Donau-Ries, who was at the meeting. Apparently the community does not interprets the blows as abuse, but as a parental right and sign of parental love.

Closed community, no evidence

1. So far, sturdy proofs of chastening don‘t exist. Last Summer a medical officer had checked 40 – 50 children and had not found any trace of abuse, said the head of the Jugendamt, Kanth. “A few children were missing, but there wasn‘t any indication that they could have been sent away because of the checkup”. Every 4 – 6 weeks social workers were on the property. “There we experience happy, well trained children, that are attached to their parents”, says Kanth. “We have no reason to take them out of their families.”

Even the prosecuting attorney’s office in Augsburg has difficulties, to be able to convict the bible devout believers of concrete deeds. “The investigations don‘t happen easily”, says spokesman Matthias Nickolai. This was also because of the very closed community. When, or if a charge could be preferred, is not predictable at the moment.

Likewise the hands of the school supervisory are bound. Since no one of the Twelve Tribes had admitted so far, that spankings were being practiced in school as well, said Ludwig Unger.

Since 2010 none of the students have made an external certificate of Secondary Education. But this is at the discretion of the parents.

Otherwise, the students were at a good level of performance in the 
last few years. And so the lack of qualified teachers is the only 
way the authorities can address against the community and to close 
the school. But then they faced again an old problem: Where will
the children of the “Twelve Tribes” be taught from September on?

Statement on the examination of school performance in the 
Community School in Klosterzimmern of Hubert Stapf, 
school psychologist, guidance Rector on April 22nd, 2013
(1309-1312)

1. examination of performance in the subject German on April 11^th, 2013

1.1 examination of performance in the realm “spelling”

8 of 15 assessed tests are classified above average (53%), 2 are average (13%) and 5 are below average (33%). The performances are like in the years before comparable to results in a Regular school.

1.2 examination of performance in the realm “write for yourself and others”, “write texts”

7 of 15 assessed tests are classified above average (46%), 5 average (33%) and 3 below average (20%).

Summary of results in the subject German:

Also in this examination of performance the overall results of the students are satisfactory. Approximately half of the students reached good respectively above average results in the realm of “spelling” and “write for yourself and others” / “write texts”.

In general, the specific requirements of different text types (especially in letters) were met. However, a development is necessary, especially in higher grades, in particular in the argumentative and founded writing is still, in particular with regard to structuring, structure of the argument and factual style of writing.

2. examination of the achievements in mathematics on April 9^th, 2013

Summary of results in mathematics:

Out of 15 rated student tests 4 (27%) were in the above-average, 9 (60%) were in the average and 2 (13%) below average.

This time again the students were focused, working cleanly, clearly and they stayed on a clear presentation of the steps towards the solution.

3. examination of the achievements in content subjects (homeland, expertise, physics, chemicals, biology) on the April 15^th, 2013

In the grades 2-4 themes from the “Explore the environment – learning field nature and technology“ or “Life with nature – learning field animals“ were presented in independent, separate presentations by each student. Afterward questions were asked and the competence of the students was reviewed. It showed that in the aspect of “knowledge / skills” the children were at least found in the average range. The subject-specific procedures (experiments, presentation techniques, illustrate the results, etc.) were dominated by the majority of the students at least satisfactory.

In my opinion, teaching students of different levels together in one class leads to either asking too little of them or too much.

In the 5^th, 7^th, 8^th and 9^th grade, the topics were presented in autonomous student presentations and verified by transfer questions.

Regarding the usual categories (construction / structure, presentation manner, illustrative manner, expertise) the presentations were at least in the average range.

The current affairs should, however, find more consideration mainly in the higher grades (for example, topics such as “radioactivity”: Discussion on repository, threat of dictatorships…).

Conclusion:

The performance review at the private supplementary school Klosterzimmern this year, was held in a friendly atmosphere again; cooperation and acceptance of the review procedure on the part of teachers could be observed again.

For the rest of these excerpts of the Klosterzimmern private school records, follow this link, “Let the Record Speak.”