First ESD spring festival in the history of BBS Alice Salomon

On Thursday, 25.04.2024, the time had come – the BBS Alice Salomon school community celebrated its first spring festival on the topic of “Education for Sustainable Development”. On this day, all of the school’s classes and students presented the projects they had carried out on the topic of “sustainability” over the course of the year.

The projects were based on the 17 Global Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015:

Whether it was about reducing food waste and throwing food away (“Too good for the garbage can”), sustainable table decorations, the topic of “poverty in Germany” or freedom, peace and justice – every single project was designed to make the world a little bit better. Insect hotels were made and various gardening projects took place, bags were sewn from old clothes and visitors could dare to walk on a Da Vinci bridge. “Sustainability in care” and the “removal of barriers in social spaces” were addressed, the importance of high-quality education was discussed, play equipment made from willow was on display, experiments were carried out in the daycare center taking into account selected ESD aspects and fair toys were shown. Many classes designed raised beds, which now beautify the Neuwied school site in front of the B wing. A sheep and two lambs were also present, Edda with her twins, who familiarized visitors to the festival with species-appropriate animal husbandry.

Principal Doris Schulte-Schwering was also delighted to welcome external guests:

Ms. Marion Schnitzler, former ESD representative of the Pädagogisches Landesinstitut

Ms. Cordula Honnef, spokeswoman for the Neuwied Fair Trade Circle

Mr. Fabian HIllinghäuser-Marx, Consultant for ESD at the Pädagogisches Landesinstitut

Mr. Werner Dötsch from the Linzer Tafel

Politicians were also represented: The Lord Mayor of Neuwied, Jan Einig, and the 1st Alderman of the City of Linz, Helmut Muthers, took the opportunity to see the commitment of the students at BBS Alice Salomon for themselves.

In a small stage program, Nevio from HBF S 23 b gave an impressive speech and a passionate plea for diversity. And Simon from HBF S 23 c conducted an interview with Mr. Dötsch, the chairman of the Linzer Tafel. The program was accompanied musically by Marie Krings, Melvin Gerolstein and Janosch Modrack from the FSS, so that the overall atmosphere was excellent.

None of this would have been possible without the extraordinary commitment of the BNE-AG: Iradet Bajrami, Marie-Therese Syllwasschy, Anne Gasper, Alisa Albiez, Irina Spenst, Annette Simon and especially Marco Gilles, who really did his best over the last few days to make this festival possible. THANK YOU to all of you.

A big thank you also to all the students: the event showed that sustainability is an important topic for the younger generation and our students all contributed with a lot of creativity and ideas.

“We hope that today’s celebration was the start of making an ESD spring festival a tradition at our school. We want to celebrate it many more times and make the world a little bit better with every project,” says Doris Schulte-Schwering.