Location of LUKAS Schule

The LUKAS Schule is a private school in the county of Diepholz in Northern Germany. It has a Christian orientation. The school is situated  in Bassum, a town about 25 km south of Bremen. The small town Bassum is located at the heart of the rural county Diepholz, so most of our students are from the surrounding towns and villages. In their leisure time they enjoy country pursuits and sports. Many of them travel quite a distance and get to school by train, bus or car. Still the well-known town Bremen is within reach, so there is easy access to the historical city, diverse museums, art galleries, cinemas and theatres which we make use of for excursions and visits of all kinds.

School forms of LUKAS Schule

The LUKAS Schule consists of different school forms under one umbrella. There is a Grundschule (primary school, year 1 – 4), a Realschule (secondary modern school, year 5 – 10) and a Gymnasium (grammar school, year 5 – 12). There also is a Kindergarten for ages 0 – 6. The LUKAS Schule momentarily resides in two buildings. We moved into a new school building last year.

Students and teachers

The school is being built up since 2003, so to date there is only one class in each year for all the school forms. In 2014 we have students in year 1 to year 11. All together there are about 280 pupils at the school and about 28 teachers in the staff. Although teachers are trained and engaged for either Realschule or Gymnasium, they will teach classes in both school forms.

The school day

There are lessons from 8.00 until 13.10 each day, but for the Gymnasium there are lessons in the afternoon too. The school offers an optional supervision of homework for those who cannot be looked after at home. There are also some extracurricular activities like football, tennis or Jugend forscht (supervision of individual projects for the Regional Youth Research Competition).

Mission statement

In order to prepare our students for life in a world of constant change we want to impart profound knowledge as well as the ability for lifelong learning. On the basis of our Christian beliefs we want to convey values and orientation to our students and practise them in our daily school life. We strive to offer the students the opportunities to develop their personalities and achieve according to their potential. They shall be enabled to form their own opinion and become responsible citizen.

Christian school means appreciation. We believe that the strengths and weaknesses of each individual must be appreciated and valued.

Christian school means community. We live and work together and we care for each other. We want our students to realize that everyone may accept help and can also help others.

Christian school means responsibility. We encourage our students to appreciate Christian values as a basis to think and act responsibly.

Children from different backgrounds are welcome at our school, regardless of their origin, their religious or other convictions.

Educational focus

In order to foster knowledge, skills and competence through education we enhance self-organized learning. This is either done in individual work time or in project work.

In individual work time students take on responsibility for their learning process. They can choose a task, they can choose according to difficulty, they can work in their own speed, they can work alone or with a partner and they must control solutions and correct mistakes on their own.

In the Realschule there is a focus on project work in the natural sciences. In years 6 and 7 students are prepared to start their own research project to take part in the “Jugend forscht” competition (the Regional Youth Research Competition). In the last years a number of prizes have been won by students of the LUKAS Schule.

In Religious Education there is project work too. Students work out and hold school services for the different religious festivals according to the liturgical year. So year 6 is responsible for the harvest festival, year 7 celebrates the World Day of Prayer, year 8 holds the service for the Reformation Day and year 9 celebrates the Stations of the Cross in Lent.

Objectives

We believe that students should understand about globalization and care for the environment. Projects on renewable energy are run, health education and sports is part of the curriculum and a student-run company was founded which produces a healthy buffet for the school every second month. For all these efforts the LUKAS Schule has been granted the award of “Umweltschule/Agenda 21 Schule” (Eco Schools) in 2011 and 2013.

At the moment we work on establishing a network of international contacts to schools in other countries. This is intended not only to develop the use of English and French as foreign languages by our students but also to widen their perspective and the understanding of other cultures. On the one hand this is crucial for the future career opportunities of our students. On the other hand we believe that developing cultural empathy and awareness is invaluable and the only way to living in peace on this earth.

Our ambition is to be deeply rooted in the region with the world in view.