Berlin schools
When our son, who is now in 6th grade was about to enter the 5th grade we decided that a higher school (gymnasium) would be better suited for him then the class in the grammar school on which he was at that time. Unfortunately this was only possible by entering a socalled “Schnellläuferklasse” (Fastgoerclass means one year school is skipped), which we didn’t find optimal, but since the school which he could go to (in Marzahn-Hellersdorf) was actually good (our daughter was already there) we decided we could go with this. Unfortunately it turned out last year that the school doesn’t have any more capacities to offer french as a second language (as what we would have chosen) but only spanish. Since Tim works in Munich and there are no higher schools in Munich which offer spanish as a second language moving back to Munich would be a problem with a choice of spanish as a second language (second languages start usually in the 7th grade). Moreover we are not really happy with the concept of Schnellläuferklasse* (especially since school time had already been drastically shortened in Germany) , so we were considering a school change. Unfortunately our son has (including preschools) already visited 7 different schools on 3 different continents so we are very reluctant about another change. Moreover we got sofar rejections from most of the gymnasiums which are halfway reachable (Berlin East) and which somewhat support his affinity for art and natural sciences that is we received rejections from: Coppi-Gymnasium, Otto-Nagel-Gymnasium and Dathe Gymnasium. The Heinrich-Hertz-Gymnasium fell out of choice for several reasons. He is on the waiting list of one Gymnasium in Marzahn-Hellersdorf, which would be a last possibility for a change, but we don’t know much about that school. If someone has any tips on that issue please let us know.
*there were actually more parents in his class unhappy with this concept and there were discussion wether one should give up the Schellläuferklasse Concept (there was a little time window last year for doing this). In a Schnellläuferklasse kids which are good in school are gathered and there are less kids in such a class then usual, so the majority of parents from that class at that school in Marzahn-Hellersdorf found the perspective to mix their kids into an overcrowded class less apealing.
March 7th, 2012 at 9:09 am
nad wrote: “the majority of parents from that class at that school in Marzahn-Hellersdorf found the perspective to mix their kids into an overcrowded class less apealing.”
so you don’t want to mingle your kid with the normal kids in that school, isn’t that elitistic and in contradiction to the egalitarian views you expressed here on this blog?