13-year-old starting at a German school

We are a married couple, professional singers, with a 13 yr old daughter. There is a possiblity of a move to Germany for professional purposes. THe question is whether or not to put our daughter into the public schools...our thought is yes...we assume that there is no such thing as legal homeschooling in Germany...does anyone know about that? We have been to Germany 4-5 times, and our daughter is quite comfortable there, and knows some German...but going into highschool/gymnasuim, etc...might that be too difficult? Or would she be put back a few grades because of the low level language?
THanks for any feedback.

Another idea would be to try one of the international schools. There is one in Hannover and one in Bremen. The main language is English.

Regarding your question about homeschooling you are correct it is not legal in Germany.
And with regards to High School it is unlikely that a Gymnasium would accept a child with little German. You realise that there are three (main) types of High School right?

It would be helpful if you could tell us if this move is likely to be permanent or temporary as that has a bearing on what the best advice would be.

I'm not sure how it works outside Bremen, but Bremen school district has a large immigrant population and so they offer specific three month German courses for foreign students which can be taken before joining your regular class.
We moved from the UK at the end of last year and neither of our kids (6 and 11 ) spoke any German. Both understood a little as my wife is German.

Emily (the six year old) took the course as a separate class and her German is now near fluent, by the time she starts school in August I think she will do fine.

Nathan didn't take the course at the recommendation of his head-teacher and had a few problems with language in the first few months.
Because he was finding it tough we asked about the course again and one of his class teachers who is trained in teaching German as a foreign language agreed to do some extra work with him. My wife also spends about 2 hours a day after school is done working through the lessons that he has had and the homework for the next day.
He is now getting much better grades and by next year I think it will be fine and he will be getting much the same grades as he was in the UK.

You know your daughter better than anyone else, if you think she will make friends and put in the effort to catch up then at least in my experience the Bremen school system will support you and work with you to make it work.

One thing I would say though is go visit the schools you are considering and be flexible in your approach to it all.

thanks for the feed back! yes, we know about the 3 types of highschool...i guess we are wondering how getting into school works...would they test her and then due to the language level, put her back a grade or two? also, we don't know how long we will be there, but she is pretty excited about the prospect of jumping into a german school...she loves the language and the country, as we have family and friends there and have visited several times...

Responsibility for German education system lies primarily with the Bundesländer (states) , so it really will depend on where you live, but if you live in Bremen then it probably won't be as formal as a 'test'.
Nathan went to visit the school and had a long chat with the head-teacher. Then he joined a class for a lesson to see how it went. While he was in class my wife sat and talked to the head-teacher some more about his grades in his old school and about what we wanted for him, about how we would help etc.
After they had all talked she made a decision that she was comfortable to admit him, it was that simple.
We discussed options and had a choice. In the UK he was in 6th grade because we start at 5 there. However 6th grade in Germany is full of kids 1 year older than Nathan.
We were given the choice to start in year 5 or in year 6 and to see how things went. The original plan was that he would try both classes during his first year and see how things went.
In the end he got on well in the grade 6 class and asked if he could stay there. His class teachers supported him staying there and so he has. Now at the end of the school year we are all planning on having another meeting to discuss his grades and decide if he needs to drop a year.
It's really been very informal and cooperative with a clear intent to make sure that Nathan fits in and gets the most out of things.

I've an artist friend in Brooklyn, NY, that has dual US/UK citizenship and has a son and daughter.

The son is about 20 now and went to HS in Britain, and the daughter is now a sophomore in an American school.

The difference between the two is like night and day.

Mom sees it too.

I begged her to do what she has to to get her daughter to England for her schooling, but sadly the girl is caught in a trap where after a year in an American School she's so far behind her English age peers, on all levels, that it would take at least 3 years to catch up to the freshman.

If I were you, I wouldn't give this a second thought, if you are thinking about what's in the best interest of your child.

Visual aids are helpful, check out this movie before you make any life altering decision.

My niece was about that age when she moved to Germany and tried public school for about 6 months. They told her she just didn't know (learn) enough German to be able to keep up.

She ended up going to an International School.

It depends a lot on the kid and what kind of support they get. I met a 17 yo. Turkish boy at the VHS doing a German class who'd moved here two years ago with his parents. He and his sister were both dropped into the school system without much German. His sister made it ok but he spent 2 years in Hauptschule without learning very much.

My brother lives in the US and he sent his kids to Iceland for a year to stay with family and go to school there just for the experience and neither of them learned much Icelandic. They were both around 13 years old when he did it so they would just speak English to the other kids and slack off or draw pictures during classes.

You should talk to the school about what your options are. They can talk to her and figure out what her German is like. Maybe they know of an intensive course for kids, maybe something she can take along with starting school.

Does your child want to go through that? If he/she does then send them they will learn if there is a will. I know 2 who did rather well in the schools here. One thing is to keep up the tutoring sessions after school. Buy books. watch tv, listen to only German. Let the kid explore on his/her own the area. Have them join extracurricular groups.

I know an american family who came here last year. Their daughter was 12 and did not know a word of German. She was accepted into the gymnasium as a 'guest student' which meant her grades weren't counted, she had a period of grace to get her German up to speed. She also had extra private german lessons at home, and went to an after school homework help club. Sure, the first few months were hard, but she was always bright and cheery about it whenever I saw her and asked how school was. Not she's pretty fluent in German and as the school year comes to an end, she has passed the necessary tests to remain in the gymnasium as a fully fledged 'proper' student.

For her it has been a really success story. The family had a lot of help and support from the Munich International student advisory service. I assume every area has such a thing?

I have just moved my 2 out of the IS and into the german school, though they are younger (8 & 9). I was not happy with our IS experience at all, and for anyone planning on staying for more than a couple of years, I really wouldn't recommend it as a general rule. We are very happy so far with our decision to move the boys out of IS and into german school. I think the german school system gets a huge amount of criticism, some of it justified, a lot of it not (in my limited experience)

2singers,
As far as I can see, you've not mentioned the area of "Das Vaterland" to which you'd be moving. Isn't it clear yet, or are there other, more sinister, reasons for not disclosing this information?...
(Vee haff vays of maykink you talk!)

Another option is to look for a German Gymnasium which offers the IB diploma as well. Sometimes these are offered as separate English-speaking tracks, sometimes as dual German/English tracks. The bilingual tracks may help ease her transition into the German language system while allowing her to continue in English. The list of schools in Germany which offer the IB diploma is listed here (contains both private international and public schools).

Also, some German Gymnasiums now have bilingual classes (German/English, German/French) even if they do not offer the IB. This may be an option which again would help your child ease into the language.

In any case, intensive German lessons would be needed to bring a child up to speed in German.

I have posted a question regarding schools under niedersachsen area asking for any experience with british children entering the german system. Has anyone got any positive experiences of intergrating their children. We are thinking of moving to the Fallingbostel area with two children aged 8 and 12 both are bright but speak little german is there a language intergration programme in this area and is there any negative feedback because you are english. I could do with some positive feedback as I am feeling a little disheartened from whar I have read. Thinking of moving to a remote olive grove othewise help!!

we are an irish family thinking of moving to germany . we have 3 children, 2 of which were born there . one actually did just over a year in kindergarten. what are peoples experiences of putting kids straight into german school with no german - my daughter is nearly 10. my head is in an awful state trying to make this decision. can anybody give advice please?????!!!