Just been to a German parents evening and seriously thinking of throwing myself under a tram, only Id have to travel into Munich to do it....

[Nightynight]

unrelenting doom and gloom all round.

ds messed up some bit of work about a knight and jousting. I had to point out to his teacher that he doenst know what knights and jousting are in english, let alone deutsch. She had blithely assumed that all children would know about the useless sporting activities of the upper classes 600 years ago.

why cant they do SCIENCE in the primary schools here????? which ds is actually interested in

Apparently dd has gar keine Chance of getting into the gymnasium.

Is it british school or german?

british schools don't do knights and jousting they do rainforests

just as useful (not) as a bit of science

Sorry nightynight

But at your thread title!

oh dear

How old is ds? My apologies on behalf of the German people for the useless German schools

How did he avoid the knights though Nighty? Every second easy reader is about either bullies or knights.

You will get dd into a gymnasium but you cannot leave it to chance or the teachers. Bet you no-one else is. Get a tutor (maths, Rechtschreibung) and set her extra work.

Get the Schulrat to give you a list of those Oberschulen which are both Realschule AND Gymnasium in one. Then at least she still has the chance to make it through to Abitur. There are ways, whatever they go and tell you.

Or get her in on the language ticket. Don't know the set-up in Munich but according to this:

mneia.org/biling/quoideneuf/qdn_pdf/QDN_NO7.PDF

Scroll down to the last page where it says Ueberblick and it says there are only two bilingual French-German Gymnasia in Munich and some other schools that have extra French. Something like that might work.

SSSandy, you should set yourself up with a school advice centre as you know all about the Berlin system and even give advice on the Munich one now, it's reassuring and I would put all my decisions into your hands if you set up I promise!
Really, though I understand the throwing under of tram feeling! I've even got one at the end of our street.

ha ha ha! Well maybe I could sort out my own school situation first eh?!

Whilst I'm dishing out advice, I wanted to say you could call those Gymnasia we talked about, not giving your own name maybe, and just let them know the Durchschnitt you're expecting and ask what their expectations are.

How are your xmas preparations coming along? I would order any meat at a decent department store btw. If there is any other way of getting it, it's unknown to me. Dd and I made an Adventskranz at school yesterday. I am so chuffed, I am useless at this kind of thing usually but actually I quite enjoyed it. Surprised myself. And if I say so myself, it looks pretty good (if you don't look too closely at it!)

Maybe some folk will be wondering why you are talking about meat but it really is a problem in Berlin! I know the answer is Feinkostladen really but I will need a big housekeeping rise to even set foot in there.

Actually, is it really teh end of the world if our dc don't go to a Gymnasium here in Germany? For all we know they could have changed the whole system in the next 5 years, they are always trying new experiments with the school system. When I see what dh is being offered in pay for research jobs after 3 years of postdoc already I think it could be just as well to learn something usefull that earns money! I'm talking myself out of the stress of getting ds into a gymnasium here aren't I?

Message withdrawn

Message withdrawn

Message withdrawn

I know, I shouldn't do that - transferring my email conversations to a totally unrelated thread, confusing everyone and driving nightynight further in the direction of the next tram tracks.

(Actually I love trams - the whoosh you know...). None here, just the S-Bahn but you wait so long for it, suicidal tendancies tend to cool. That is if they aren't striking and the trains just simply aren't running.

You are hiding away from the whole gymnasium thing, understandably. Think you need to don your armour and polish your lance and go slay that ugly dragon. What's happening with London?

oh nightynight, I feel you pain!

All I can say from a children in UK primary school perspective is that some private tutoring is a great help if they need to pass exams to go to secondary school. I did this plus some sitting down with ds and going through test papters type of stuff. A stressful, busy time but at least it's not forever.

I can see you have some brilliant advice here from insiders, so hope that helps lift the unrelenting doom and gloom.

Went through Y4 from hell last year with ds1 who's bright and "Gymnasium-Faehigkeit aber Realschule-Leistung" owing to what we finally discovered was his (mild) SEN. (Don't start me on the lack of SEN provision )
It's the parents' choice here in RP and we could have sent him anyway but the years of Nachhilfe would have been the least of his worries. He was so miserable & tearful & stressed in Y3 & Y4 - a ghost of his usual cheery cheeky self.
Then we realised that Abitur is not the be-all-and-end-all of his life. Who knows what'll happen when he's 16? (He was only 9 when all this started ffs) Anyway, neither dh nor I had a clue as to what we wanted to do after university - much better to wait and see. Maybe ds1 will choose some other path AT THE RIGHT TIME.
Right from the start of his new secondary, a form of Gesamtschule, he's been a changed boy. Turns out his SEN was worsened by stress and as soon as that went, everything improved and he gets 1s and 2s almost all the time (and the standard is pretty much the same as Gymnasium at the start of Y5 acc to his teacher) He enjoys school - I couldn't believe it at first.
The teachers look at the child and not just the Note and ds1 is his bright active self again who's not measuring himself against his friends and not coming down to me at night worrying about the end of the world. His self-esteem has rocketed.
It's v class-based split, this secondary school system imo and so many people have said to us they would have sent ds1 to Gymnasium regardless

For non-Germans (who got this far, lol) here only children who go to Gymnasium/grammar school do the equivalent of A-levels. That's decided (in most states) at the start of Y4 of primary so after 3 full years and a bit of primary school, aged 9-10. Barmy.

Was a constant battle with the school, ds1's old teacher and I are OK now but the head really took it out on ds1 and even now can barely be civil to me. You're not alone. On the plus side, his new head is great as is his new form teacher and I've learnt a thing or two about dealing with schools

I keep telling you woman. Come ot France.

I just spoke this afternoon to a friend of mine who took her six children out of school in Berlin this summer and has transplanted the family to Fontainebleau (for the second time), so distressed was she at the German school situation. You have my sympathies

I'm going to Munich on saturday (work dinner, so Mrs Corporate-wife) - havethe christmas markets started there yet Nighty???

sparkybabe - they will have and Munich has loads.
C'mas Markets are one thing I love here; it's not all stress with schools

Nighty - ds2 just had a science test on weather. Half the questions were at a standard you need to get a sailing licence

NN I was thinking after I went to pick up dd maybe I was too flippant on this thread. I absolutely know how devastating it feels when the schooling is unsatisfactory and you don't see a positive way forward. It's a permanent worry for me too. I have never liked the tone of this school you have. Several posts of yours have given me the impression they are way off in the way they deal with your dc and speak to/approach you.

I know you work full-time and have more than one dc to worry about so I don't know how realistic a school change is at this stage, keeping in mind too the hassles you had with the Schulbehoerde before. I just wanted to affirm finknottle's story that the approach to dc and their dp can vary dramatically from school to school; however it seems to me the worry about teaching/academic levels remains (at least in Berlin it is widely acknowledged to be a major problem at primary level and in fact everywhere outside of the handful of elite Gymnasia). I thought Munich was better in that respect.

I would also second the idea of looking into Gesamtschulen. They have a bad name in Germany because the lower achievers are with those potentially trying for Abitur but when you think about it, hey, isn't this worldwide the NORM?! What I'm trying to say is a) you've been very unlucky with this particular school as I was with dd's previous one which was just nasty. Haven't regretted the change one day. Dd is a changed child. There will be nicer schools in Munich than the one you currently have b) she can still work towards Abitur either at a joint Realschule-Gymnasium or a Gesamtschule and if you want (at least in Berlin) you can still apply to a Gymnasium whatever recommendation the school gives you.

Knew this was you before I opened it - it never seems to get any easier for you.

Jousting & knights - why oh why would they ever find that useful.

Stay calm, have a glass of wine

I see on a French education site there is a private French school and a Gymnasium in Munich but cannot find any web pages. Just this one address:

Private Deutsch-Französische Schule München
(Lycée Francais Jean Renoir)
Berlepschstr 3
81373 Muenchen
(89) 721 0070

Good things about these French schools are the comp. low fees and the fact that they will offer un bourse, even sometimes drop fees altogether so I think worth looking into. The Institut Francais in Munich should have any addresses you might need.

Perhaps too if you do move back to France at some stage, this whole issue of Abitur/streaming becomes irrelevant.

hi my dd was told the same

we moved back to england she was in school there for three years

moved back to austria this year she is in HBLA and is doing a five year course

we had a FEW blips but she is doing well

look into a few of the other schools and i wish you lots of luck

she also missed some of her fav subjects in volkschule

ps
do not talk to me about kindergartens though
or i may also seek out a tram
there are some in vienna