TUCaktuell
Alumni
TUC graduate Ingo Gebhardt heads the smallest, youngest and first international high school in the city of Chemnitz
Ingo Gebhardt has been head of the International Stefan Heym High School in Chemnitz for a year. Photo: Mario Steinebach
On August 21, 2023, the International Stefan-Heym-Gymnasium in Chemnitz will start the new school year. Ingo Gebhardt, who has been running the city’s youngest high school not far from the Schloßteich since 2022, is delighted that even more life is now moving into the historic walls of the former paper and cardboard factory “Robert Winckler” on Seumestraße. “Whereas 17 students from the first fifth grade studied with us last year, the number will now triple, since 42 girls and boys will be added,” Gebhardt looks ahead. The Stefan-Heym-Gymnasium is designed for two-stream operation with a total of around 400 pupils. “This means that up to 25 children can learn in a class from grades 5 to 12,” explains the headmaster, who will also have more work to do in the future: “Timetable planning, lessons and discussions with students and their parents – all of this must be done to be reconciled. Communication and building mutual trust are the be-all and end-all of my work.”
The 43-year-old, who studied education at Chemnitz University of Technology (TUC) from 1999 to 2005, came to the school authority, the private education service provider F+U Sachsen, after completing his studies through professional positions in Saxony and at his home university. In addition to the Abitur, a globally recognized international qualification (International Baccalaureate) can also be obtained at the school with a language profile, which is named after the world-famous Chemnitz author Stefan Heym. “It was and is very exciting to help build the high school with lots of ideas and creative freedom,” says the Chemnitz native. “I was able to draw on a lot of experience from my studies and my professional years at Chemnitz University of Technology,” he adds. Now he can finally get the theoretical foundations that he was taught at the professorship in vocational and business education by Prof. Dr. Volker Bank put into practice in schools.
A talent for improvisation was also in demand when school started last year: “Since the construction work had not yet been completely completed, we used the first week to go to the school camp in Chemnitz Küchwald. It was so well received by everyone involved that we will now repeat it at the beginning of each school year and head for it again for an introductory trip.”
Gebhardt is currently planning classes with 14 teachers, but hardly any of them have a full-time position. Many are still working at other institutions of the same educational institution. He himself is not only the headmaster, in everyday life he is also a sports teacher and class teacher of the first five-year class. “Some of my former fifth graders will now sponsor the students who are new to the Gymnasium. I am really looking forward to this experience,” said Gebhardt. Internationality and diversity are firmly anchored in the school concept. In the future, English will become increasingly important as the language of instruction in selected subjects. “We want the children to experience cultural diversity as normal and thus strengthen their personal development,” says Gebhardt. But there is also room for physical activity in everyday school life. It is also important to Gebhardt that the pupils, in the spirit of the school’s namesake, can deal with current affairs critically – for example within the framework of project days.
Gebhardt would like to work even more intensively with the TUC in the future. A few months ago, the grammar school was in contact with the creative center of the TUC as part of the hands-on exhibition “Experience Mathematics & Technology“. Further points of contact resulted from the “RADerFAHREN” project of the Professorship of Business Administration – Corporate Environmental Economics and Sustainability (Head: Prof. Dr. Marlen Gabriele Arnold). This project primarily addresses education for sustainable development in the area of local urban mobility and focuses on mobility education and road safety education for children around the age of ten as well as their legal guardians and teachers at primary and secondary schools in Chemnitz. In the future, Gebhardt also wants to use the numerous offers of the TUC’s “student portal”, including the school and student workshop of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, the “Wonderland Physics” school laboratory and the service of the university library. “It’s an advantage that I’m well networked with many areas of the university,” says the headmaster.
Mario Steinebach
14.08.2023