Secondary school in Germany

[givememarmite]

Anyone else in Germany and currently deciding on which secondary school to send their DC to?

We are a bit stuck between a Gesamtschule in a different town (not guaranteed to get in) and a Gymnasium very close to home. Just thought it might be nice to have a chat with others in this situation

If it's the one I think you mean, they also have a Förderstufe, which might be a good thing. It gives the kids a bit more time before they have to make a decision on which "stream" they want to do. (We are just over the hill from you.)
The bit I'm always a bit confused about is the English. They start from scratch in grade 5, which must be so frustrating for a native speaker if it's not managed appropriately. It's one reason why we were looking at ESRM.

Another one nearby @Dizzyhedgehog, hello!
Yes, I guess you know which one I mean, it does have the Förderstufe and you're right that could be a better option. I'm not sure if you can chose that and a gymnasium though and there isn't another decent Gesamtschule nearby. I can ask tomorrow though.
It is a difficult one with English, DD speaks very well but she will probably benefit from the reading and writing from scratch.

@givememarmite I'm not sure about this, to be honest. It's something I will have to get my head round when we have to choose.
We're going with the private, bilingual option (albeit not the one in Bad Homburg) for now. DS is still quite reluctant with German and thinks he's rubbish. He's fine and doesn't even need to go to DaF lessons but only actually started speaking German about 18 months ago. He pretty much refused before that, although he's always understood it perfectly fine. We'll see how he gets on.

Did you get support from the primary school in terms of which schools to choose?

@Dizzyhedgehog it sounds like the best option with the bilingual school for your DS at the moment and the wait and see approach for the next step!

We haven't had any specific help from Grundschule yet, there was an Elternabend where they explained the different schools in the area and which options they offer but I'm sure the teacher will give us her opinion tomorrow.

A living in Germany thread would be great :)

I would check about the application process whether you can put both schools on your application.

I just thought I'd come back and update this thread in case anyone is interested! We got the letter accepting DD in our first choice (Gymnasialzweig in the out of town Gesamtschule) very happy it worked out, she's a bit nervous as she doesn't know anyone going there but is being very positive about it all which is good.

Will have to get that living in Germany thread started too!