Grundschule

The Grundschule is the primary school every German child attends, and the only stage of the system where they all attend the same kind of school. It runs from grade 1 to grade 4 — to grade 6 in Berlin and Brandenburg — and it ends with the decision that shapes everything after it.

Starting school

School is compulsory from six, with the exact cut-off date set by each state. Children are normally assigned to the Grundschule for the district they live in rather than choosing one, which is worth knowing before you sign a tenancy agreement: in Germany the flat you take decides the school you get.

The first day is called the Einschulung and it is a genuine occasion — a ceremony at the school, the family there, and the Schultüte, a large decorated cone of sweets and small presents that the child carries in. If you have just arrived, take the camera. Everyone else will have.

The school day

A traditional Grundschule day ends around lunchtime, which comes as a shock to parents used to a full working day of school. That is changing: Ganztagsschulen running into the afternoon are now common and expanding, and where the school itself finishes early a Hort provides supervised care afterwards. Both usually need to be applied for, and both can have waiting lists.

What is taught

German, mathematics, and a general subject variously called Sachunterricht that covers science, history, geography and civics together. Art, music and sport throughout. A first foreign language, almost always English, begins in grade 1 or grade 3 depending on the state. Religion or ethics is timetabled, and which of the two a child takes is the family’s choice.

Marks usually do not appear until grade 3. Before that, reports are written in sentences.

Children arriving without German

A child who arrives in Germany without the language is not held back a year for it. Most states run preparatory classes — Willkommensklasse, Vorbereitungsklasse, DaZ-Klasse, the name changes with the state — where the child is taught German intensively while joining the ordinary class for sport, art and music, and moves across fully as the language comes.

Primary-age children reach fluency remarkably fast, and it is common for the child to be translating for the parents inside a year. The parents are the ones who tend to need the course.

The recommendation at the end

In the final year the school issues a recommendation for the kind of secondary school it believes suits the child: Hauptschule, Realschule, Gesamtschule or Gymnasium. It rests on marks, but also on how the child works — independence, concentration, how they handle being stuck.

In some states the recommendation binds; in others it advises and the parents decide. Either way it is worth talking to the class teacher early rather than meeting the recommendation for the first time on paper, and worth knowing that it is not as final as it feels. Children move between school types afterwards, and the routes described in the overview of the system exist precisely so that a decision made at ten can be revisited at sixteen.