Finding the right Secondary School - Hamburg

Hi there everyone, Ive recently moved to Hamburg with my two children, ages 15 and 12. They were in a very good school back in Wales and Im having some doubts whether the move to a Gymnasium here was the right choice.

The recommended school, by the SIZ, was the Gymnasium Hamm. Can anyone offer me advice, feedback, experience of this school especially, or any other school in Hamburg and let me know if possible how their children intergrated, completed school, coped, etc.

thank you.

Since Hamburg is a big place & you dont indicate which area you live in I'm assuming you are asking about types of schools...

What alternatives were you thinking of? If they were in a "very good" school back home then don't downgrade them here.

Our 2 children were born here. The eldest (now 20) went to local Gymnasium & whilst not a high-flyer (could have done better I'm certain) he was in a good class with constructive class mates and got his Abitur so he can start to study this October. This is in Pinneberg (Schleswig-Holstein, on North West side of Hamburg).

Our daughter (now 17) went to Realschule where she did reasonably well being top girl in her final year. This enabled her to switch to same Gymnasium for final 3 years for Abitur - snag is shes in a poor class with bad learning atmosphere - so bad we are trying to take some remedial action.

SO I'd say if the kids are bright enough for Gymnasium then they should go there - but I'm dismayed to find that in THIS Gymnasium (supposed to be top-tier school for going onto study) that there are a significant number of pupils who seem to have not interest to learn & thus IMHO do not belong there. Weeding them out would solve the overcrowding. Grrrrr.

When I was 15 I spend a year in a Gymnasium as my family was in Munich for a year. I found it very hard as I'd only done 2 years German & I was put into a class where they were 2 years older than myself in order to have similar level of science subjects. These kids had done 6 years English at that stage with result that I learnt very little German. I found that the German school put far greater emphasis on languages & less on science than my UK school did (looking at my daughter's plan I get same inpression now). Result was my German classmates were depressingly better in langauges but I flattened them in maths, physics & chemistry. The old maths teacher used to hand me the chalk & say "explain it in Eeengleesh" when it came to simultaneous equations.....

We're very happy with Gymnasium Lerchenfeld.....if you have 2 girls then Helene Lange or Sophia Barat are the best I think.....lots of different options!!

thank you for your replies, the boys are doing "extremely well" according to the school, i just hope that they are right. yes it does seem that some of the pupils are not interested in learning there, and also it makes me wonder how the hell some of them got in in the first place!!

Gymnasium Lerchenfeld has been recommended to me before so i will definately be looking into that.

thanks again

A Gymnasium is the top-tier secondary school in Germany, but you have to disregard the fact that some students are disinterested in studies. I speak as a foreign student. The system in Germany is intrinsically complex, as you must know. Students are sorted into different secondary schools at a young age - at the time they do belong to where they'll attend, however good/bad learning at age ten/younger does not always reflect the same in the future. In theory the system's valid, but infinite factors in a student's life are ignored, end result: it is not perfect in practice.