The Name of our School

Our school is named after Werner Jaeger, who was born in Lobberich on July 30th, 1888 and died in Boston on October 19th, 1961. He finished school in 1907 at Thomaeum in Kempen, and studied philosophy and ancient languages in Magdeburg and Berlin. In 1934 he published the first volume of “Paideia”. In 1936 he emigrated to the USA with his family, he became professor at the University of Chicago and later at the Harvard University of Boston (Massachusetts). On September 11th, 1958 our school, which was called Progymnasium at the time, got the name “Werner-Jaeger-Gymnasium”. On June 13th, 1959, Werner Jaeger visited “his” school and spoke to the pupils. During his second visit on June 15th, 1961 he attended lessons, too. When our school celebrated its centennial (100th birthday) on September 4th, 1982 the special guest was Ruth Jaeger.

An Interview with our Headmaster

Our headmaster, Herr Esser, visited Peterborough in 2007. He does not speak English very often, maybe only once a year. As a pupil, he learned English for five years, but he was not very talented at speaking foreign languages. His favourite subject was mathematics, because it was easy for him. Now he teaches mathematics, physics and computer sciences, the subjects he was best at in his school time. He did not plan to be a headmaster, but at one moment he had the chance to be one, and it is an interesting job. Unfortunately he cannot decide which subjects we have to do at school, this decision is made by the school board in Düsseldorf.

Activities

Sports:

Sports day – The activities take place in different locations, classes 5 and 6 are on the sports field, where they have competitions like football, biathlon, relay races and tug of war. Classes 7 and 8 are in the gymn for a tournament of hockey, basketball and football.

Sebastian Cup and Milk Cup – Sebastian Cup is a table football (“kicker”) tournament, and all those who take part get a t-shirt. Milk Cup is a table tennis tournament, where different classes compete with each other.

Handball and basketball – There are competitions between different schools.

Music:

Orchestra – The orchestra is a workshop of a lot of musicians, young and old. They practice on Friday from 18.00 to 20.00 pm in the theatre called Werner-Jaeger-Halle. Usually there are two or three concerts every year, for example the Christmas concert. Mrs. Yvonne Herter is the conductor of the orchestra. You can play a lot of different instruments, such as the violin, the cello, the clarinet, the saxophone and many more. For more information: www.musik-am-wjg.de.

Choir – Our music teacher Mr. Björn-Kai Feist is the choirmaster of two choirs: Fortissimo for classes 5 and 6 and Accelerando for classes 7 to 12. Choir practice is on Thursdays from 13.15 to 14.00 pm for the juniors and from 16.00 to18.00 pm for the seniors.

Events

Open Day at WJG

On the annual open day our school presents the subjects that are taught at our school to pupils from primary schools who want to go to our school next year. Some of our pupils present a subject and do some exercises and experiments in science, but also in French, Geography, Latin, Biology … The members of our music club “Instrumental AG” play music in the foyer, and the drama club “Theater AG” performs sketches or scenes from Shakespeare’s plays. It is always great fun for the children and interesting for their parents.

Exchange with King’s

35 pupils and three teachers went to Peterborough by coach and boat in October 2013 as part of our exchange programme. For five days we stayed with very friendly host families and did cool trips, we went on excursions to London, Stamford, Cambridge and Peterborough and had a close look at the British way of life. We were allowed to have a look around the school, we looked around the town, and we enjoyed the sightseeing tour in London, where we walked from Piccadilly Circus to Marble Arch. On Thursday we visited Stamford and Burghley House, and on Friday Cambridge with its colleges. Of course we went punting, too. It was a great experience, and we are looking forward to the return visit in April, when we can show the English pupils our way of life.

Class 8c: Philipp, Annika, Elisa, Mirka, Elif, Darleen, Jamie, Ela, Johanna, Sophie, Michel, Pia, Jill, Daniel, Lauritz, Hannah