School culture

The culture of our school is shaped by the values and attitudes that guide our actions.

VALUES

Authenticity

Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of concepts of who we think we should be and embracing who we are and who we want to be.

Cosmopolitanism

As citizens of the world, we consciously engage with new things, learn from one another and confidently define our identity.

Courage

As founders and creators of tomorrow, we need courage - the courage to go new ways. The courage to believe in ourselves, to become active and to change the world.

Our values determine our attitudes!

ATTITUDES

Strong relationships

At the heart of the entire school system are the relationships between all stakeholders in our learning community. To be authentic dialogue partners, encouraging supporters, and open-minded companions, trusting and mindful relationships are needed. Most schools, however, tend to be relationship-preventing systems, where teachers rush from one class to the next, teaching more than 100 students a day. The fatal message of the system: There is no time for the essential.

We create the conditions for a good relationship culture: small learning groups, structurally planned time for coaching and relationship maintenance between students and teachers, constructive feedback culture, value-oriented behavior control system based on gradual self-regulation, community board, school for teachers and parents and much more.

Inspire & move

We bridge the gap between education and life by bringing school closer and integrating it into the lives of the students. X-School makes school moving and inspiring: bravely thought from the students, close to their interests, in the middle of their arts and cultural landscape, authentic and with a sense of their challenges and dreams. The presentation of the subjects, the language, the learning materials, the spaces, the furnishings, the celebrations - we consciously design the school to be the axis of our social and educational lives.

So-called sub- and entertainment cultures such as hip hop, electro, graffiti, street art and their respective lifestyles are elevated to the rank of high culture. Artists and experts from the respective professional fields give workshops, the learning material, the projects, and actions are designed, accordingly, and the corresponding art is exhibited in the school.

As an example, the relevant youth culture of Hip Hop is mentioned. Many schools use it to arouse the interest of young people. Rap AGs are then organized, for example. Students write rap lyrics and create a song. So far so good. But the X-School goes one step further by approaching Hip Hop as an art form on a par with e.g., classical music. Accordingly, we use rap to teach literature, philosophy, art, and social studies. [1]

Diversity as wealth

The culture of the X-School is characterized by dealing with diversity as an equal exchange at eye level. Students and teachers are open to new and unfamiliar things and courageously explore new paths.

True diversity also impacts diverse areas of school operations:

Learning content: We offer students learning content with a global perspective. History, philosophy, geography, even natural sciences can thus be experienced not only from a Eurocentric perspective.
Learning materials: materials that are multi-perspectival and global in their approach, that portray people of different cultural and religious backgrounds and that therefore allow real diversity to be experienced.
Languages: In most schools, you are praised if you speak English or French in the schoolyard, and reprimanded if you speak Arabic, Turkish, etc. This reflects a cultural discrimination that goes back to colonial times. X-School considers all languages to be of equal value.
Rituals: The handling of celebrations and rituals in the X-School means two things:
1. Inclusion of celebrations that play a role in the students’ family history and that they choose to carry on as part of their identity. The festivals can be celebrated within a defined framework and used as an opportunity to learn about the respective culture beyond the clichés.
2. An intersectional critical attitude towards the way certain festivals are celebrated.
Religions: All religions are welcome and, as long as they do not deprive anyone of their freedom, may be practiced freely at school. We are a place of multi-faith appreciation and interfaith dialogue.
Spaces: Integration of different global learning environments that integrate diverse forms of learning and where children and young people can find their very own way in a learning setting that complements their personal learning style.

Growth-oriented attitude

The X-School creates a growth-oriented culture of high expectations, where talent is just a starting point and skills are developed through hard work.

If X-School had a voice, it would say to children:

'You are the brave shapers of tomorrow's world. There are no limits to your development. I am excited to get to know each and every one of you. You all come to class with different strengths and experiences, so you won't learn the same things in the same way. My job is to support you to achieve your personal learning goals. I will be asking a lot of you and also of me, because our success will depend on our efforts. Let's learn together for life.'