info on schools in Germany please?

[firestorm]

my dh has just been offered a job in germany (not sure where yet) i think that it may be the opportunity we are looking for (a more laidback less stressful lifestyle) & want to find out more about what living in germany would really be like for an english family who dont speak the language yet. im sure ill pick it up eventually & my 3 & 5 year old dd`s would have no problem but we need to get by in the meantime.
obviously my main concern would be schooling for the girls. i would probably like them to go to an english speaking school (if such things exist in germany) & my husband would hopefully be able to negotiate for the company to cover a fair proportion of the school fees as an incentive to get him out there. my friend has suggested sending them to the local state school & says that they will get a lot of help with learning the language etc, but im not sure how they would feel about that (especially my 5 year old who is very shy & timid) so i think that an english speaking school would be more appropriate.
any thoughts or advice anyone?

My family moved to Germany when I was 11 and my brother and I went to the local school. We picked up German very quickly, the school provided extra German lessons for us and we had lots of local friends. We moved back to the UK when I was 16 and I had no problems doing Highers and going on to Uni. There are English language schools, mostly in the big cities. Not all of these will follow the English curriculum, some will follow the American system. There is a list here and I am sure there are more.

Hi Firestorm. I'm afraid I can't help you with the question re: schools, as my children went to a forces school, but as for Germany itself, we loved it. The people are truly lovely, not at all the arrogant race that people believe them to be, the country is much cleaner, there is SO much to do and the scenery is spectacular. We only came back to UK in March, and I'm already feeling gutted that we are going to miss Xmas out there what with the Xmas markets and the lights and snow and atmosphere. Unfortuantely we got posted back after a year, btu I would love to live there again.

thanks nome & marmaladesun for your very useful info i will certainly check out that site nome.
i have asked my husband & he says that the job will be based in munich. any info on that particular area very gratefully recieved.

Hi Firestorm.

The one really in the know is Bron aka Hausfrau who has recently moved out there and has her son in German Kindergarten.

We live in Switzerland and ds (6) attends an International School. The Primary Years programme of the International Bacclaureatte (sp) curriculum is out of step with the UK one though and we fear he will be behind if/when we come back next summer. There are certainly equivalents in Stuttgart and Frankfurt and probably other major cities too. Details for one in Munich and the programme in general are here .

You would probably find a wealth of bilingual and English speaking Preschools and Kindergartens too. If you are likely to stay long term then picking up the language so young would definitely be a benefit but ,like your dd, ds would not have coped very well in the early struggles to be understood so we went the Egnlish speaking route.

Good luck in your decision.

thanks lizs, i will have to speak to my husband about it. at the moment he`s not really even considering it as an option, but i feel that opportunities like this come up so rarely we would be mad not to look into it at least.

thanks hausfrau will do that.

thanks for the info everyone we have decided not to consider the job any further as dh says it will take him away from home a lot. after 2 years of spending virtually no time as a family (because dh thought it was a good idea to build a huge extension on our house by himself) we do need to start afresh somewhere new (& had planned to do so anyway) but not unless it involves us spending more time together.
thanks anyway