The Freitag Family

"We chose DSM for both of our children's education because their bi-lingual program is a reflection of our home life. My husband speaks his native tongue, German to the children and I speak my native tongue, English to the children. However my husband and I both understand, speak and write the other language as well. The same concept as the school has with their one person, one language concept but all staff are bilingual."

"The impact DSM has on our family, is that it helps us foster the children's heritage and culture. It broadens our horizon of the global world where languages and learning different cultures can build bridges with people in the community. This gives us more opportunity to gain and expand knowledge in different fields. It gives us the confidence to bond with people who normally wouldn't be in our circle of friends. The children learn how to expand there mind by analysing, comparing similarities and differences that can be transferred to other areas of life. This also influenced the decision to send both children at the age of 7 and 9 years old, unaccompanied to Germany. It was their adventure, spending valuable time with extended family and experiencing every day life in a different country. They also visited the local primary school for 8 days to experience a 'real' German school and were amazed at the similarities but also the differences."

"What we like most about the school, is the sense of community with teachers and families. We all work together, supporting, encouraging and helping to find a solution where we can. We all strive for the same goals and certainly work as a team to achieve these. This has been most important during lockdown. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and the situation has truly shown that it takes a village to raise a child. We have certainly shown some creativity in the way we stay connected and support each other during lockdown, not only in the school environment but also personally. The school community is certainly an extension of our family."

"My oldest son transitioned from DSM to the local high school last year when COVID hit. This meant that the majority of his learning was done online throughout the lockdowns Melbourne endured. Through independent learning, timetable structure and the diverse teachers he experience at DSM, he was able to adapt successfully to a new school, new teachers, new classmates while the having the self motivation to complete tasks online. He also attends the German Language Program for Secondary School Students after high school at DSM. Not only to further his German studies but to catch up with old school mates and foster a long lasting relationship to the German language with many positive aspects."

"The DSM Christmas Market creates a wonderful atmosphere for parents to come together and enjoy each others company. Its here where all the enthusiasm and creativity comes together to make great things happen. I thoroughly enjoy making traditional German biscuits and passing on my knowledge and passion to others. Each year there would be a personal best record I wanted to bet, just for a little extra challenge. This then turned into learning how to bake, assemble and decorate the famous Gingerbread Houses that are always highly sought after. Over the years, the experience grows and then its time to teach the next generation. During COVID lockdown we needed to be creative in how we could virtually come together as a team, remotely teach the new parents how to make the gingerbread houses and then organise a pop-up stall with a COVID safe plan. We were all extremely proud of our efforts and the success of the Christmas Market lies due to the positive attitudes and hard working people who make it happen."