German schools

[moved]

Does anyone know how easy it is to transfer to the German gymnasium system from the English grammar system for non-German natives?

Any knowledge of how the school year/age of child/dob work?

[cinnamon]

Presumably the child/ren in question is/are German speakers?

There's a forum for English/US ex-pats in Germany which should be able to help you out (toytowngermany.com). The finer details may vary according to which of the federal states you're looking at.


Being a) A German graduate (and half-German) and

b) Nosy

I'd be interested to hear the story behind this, moved, if you don't mind telling all.

[moved]

The children in question are not fluent German speakers, but one has GCSE and the other 2 years of secondary education. Adapting to the language is not really a problem that has been envisaged as the children are already used to learning foreign languages.

This concerns a parental post to Germany from the UK.

[cinnamon]

Adapting to the language is not really a problem that has been envisaged as the children are already used to learning foreign languages.

Does that mean they've already been to a non-English-speaking school? Following lessons in another language is pretty hard going and, obviously, the older the child, the more complex the language and ideas they'll encounter at school. Presumably the school would do some sort of test before accepting them or deciding which year to place them in, though.

I don't wish to be negative but I'm not sure, even with GCSE German, it'll be that easy. My elder daughter is sitting German GCSE at the moment and the standard required is far below the O Level I took, certainly in terms of vocabulary and grammar covered.

[moved]

It will indeed be interesting to see what will happen. A very international gymnasium has been contacted by the parents. The curriculum is taught in German, French and English so if I hear I will try and let you know how this progresses! I don't think easy comes into the equation! Persuading teenagers to move at all is not something that I would like to undertake.