Monika Boschert-Rittmeyer, headmaster:

"In June 2024, together with Lisa Praeg, we held an initial workshop to introduce our pupils to sociocracy in order to find out together how this method can best be taught to pupils with special educational needs.

The Leopold School is a special education and counseling center for hearing and speech with a special focus on hearing. Children and young people with speech impairments or hearing impairments can obtain a secondary or intermediate school leaving certificate at the Leopold School. The speech therapy lessons are tailored to their individual needs. In addition to the technical equipment in the classrooms, this includes special support services such as vocabulary development, articulation training and the promotion of communication in social contexts. Rhythmization within a lesson is essential: short theoretical phases alternate with practical implementation. Communication skills and identity development are of particular importance in our everyday school life in order to ensure the social participation of our pupils.

We gained the following insights from the first introductory workshop:
 

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• PARTICIPATION CONCEPT: Sociocracy within the school should be embedded in a concept for democracy education. The concept of levels of participation creates transparency for pupils in which areas they can help shape the school. Real opportunities for participation should be available here. Classes should talk about the class representative tasks of the previous school year and evaluate them in terms of their importance. A regular exchange at eye level with the school management increases the students' motivation to get involved and participate.

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• SPEAKING IN ROUNDS: At Leopold School pupils' concerns are discussed in regular class council meetings and decisions are made within the class. Speaking in rounds can be practiced here. In this way, reserved pupils can gain or build up confidence in their communication skills. Pro/con discussions with well-prepared vocabulary are also a good practice area.​

• COMPETENCE TRAINING: The sociocratic class representative election was carried out as a pilot following a workshop in a seventh grade class. Since our students' need for support in the area of language is very extensive, the necessary skills should be developed/refreshed in the first year of implementation within a project (first school week). This includes vocabulary training and the promotion of self-confidence and self-assessment. Sentence modules on the topics of voting/strengths and weaknesses/arguments increase our pupils' language skills.

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• EXERCISES & THEORY: Rhythmization is also necessary within the project: Alternate action-oriented phases (exercises/games for team building) with shorter theory inputs (max. 30 minutes, preferably digital), listening breaks can be taken, reflection breaks can be inserted and individual learning can be facilitated.