Relocating a family to Frankfurt

Hi everyone

My husband has been offered a relocation to Raunheim, just outside Frankfurt. We have 2 children - age 5 and 7. It is pretty likely that we will take the offer but I've got some many questions and this looks like the best place to get them answered, so here goes:

• Any suggestions on where to live - needs to be family friendly and within 30mins drive of Raunheim.
• How do I go about finding a school? We want to put them into a local school, not International, as we think they will learn German quicker and we will integrate better into the local community.
• Our 5year old is currently in 2nd year of school here, I've read that they take kids in at 6 in Germany - will she be able to go?
• What hours do they go to school?
• Does anyone know the school term dates - we will probably be moving Easter time, and would like the kids to start school after the easter holidays.
• What is the cost of living like in Frankfurt - rent/gas/electricity/phone bills/shopping etc? In terms of rent costs, we would be looking at a 4 bed house with decent garden.
• My husband speaks a bit of German and I did German at school about 20 years ago (!) but I can still remember it - how tough will it be to sort out schooling etc with this language barrier or do most Germans understand a bit of English too?
• We have a dog - does anyone know whether this is likely to restrict the rental accommodation available to us?

Oh - so many things to think about.

It's such a big upheaval for us - if it wasn't for the kids we would have no hesitation on going.

I would be really interested in hearing from other families with similar aged kids to find out how they settled in etc.

Thanks in anticipation
Julie

Oh so many questions I do not have enough time to answer them all now.

I just want to say though that putting them into a local school is the best idea. I am not sure about your youngest though he might have to do a year at kindergarten or perhaps something similar. Children usually start school at 6 here but some are taked at 5 depends on ability. But I am sure people with kids could say more on that than me.

I don't think a dog would hinder the sort of accommodation you are looking for and generally cost of living for groceries etc is considerably cheaper.

Oh and here are the holday dates in Hessen for 2008. It is in German but easy to follow

Due to its proximity to Frankfurt International Airport Raunheim is officially the noisiest town in Germany:

Raunheim lies on the airport approach. With certain wind conditions (officially: operational direction 07), the approaching aircraft fly about 300 m over the town, reaching a noise level of 70 dB, peaking at 90 dB, making Raunheim the airport area community most strongly affected by aircraft noise.

Hi,

Does your husband's prospective company not support you with such a relocation? I know my company uses this relocation organisation http://www.proforg.com/homepage/ - they appear to cover all bases, although I have personally never used their services. I know there is a cost attached, depending on how many of their services you use (ballpark €500- €1000 per client). However, it may be worthwhile for you husband to negotiate this as part of his relocation, if such a service is not already offered. It would certainly remove a lot of the uncertainty and associated stress about such a big upheaval. Even if you don't enlist their help, the website has a wealth of useful info. including a good FAQ section for families.

Also, just wait a day or two and I'm sure many TTers will come up with the goods!

Thanks for the information you have all given so far. We are getting our relocation costs paid for us, but this doesn't include the use of a relocation service company so we either pay for that ourselves or we try and sort it all out by ourselves. Thankfully, there are lots of bilingual people working at my husbands place so we will probably 'borrow' them for a day or so to get things organised.

Would still love to hear from any of you that have children to find out more about when the kids can start. Our youngest will be 6 next August and so is currently in her 2nd year at school here as the cut off date is 1st September.

Thanks

We came here due to my husband's job 2 years ago with a 4 year old, and have found the school situation to be quite challenging. Unfortunately, German schools do not teach children anything until they are 6 or, in many cases, 7. The cut off in much of the Frankfurt area is 6 before June 1. There is a school in Oberursel that begins at 5, but it is very basic intro class. Also, academically German education is so far behind American or British that the kids are severely disadvantaged in reading and maths skills when they return, if they return in the primary years. The PISA study found Germany to be 22nd in the EU in reading and writing and 23rd in Maths. As well, German schools let kids out before lunch, often in the 11 o'clock hour. One day to the next may not be the exact same dismissal time either, depending on the school. There are no extracurricular activities with schools.
We wanted to have our son learn German without limiting his academic development, and after trying one school, we ended up moving him to the IBMS in the city. This is a truly bilingual school in Frankfurt that has an "English" class for reading and maths, but does most other activities in German. Most of the kids speak German. It is a Montessori school, but the English class equally follows the British curriculum, incorporating the Oxford Reading Tree and other British curricula. We have generally found this to be a suitable option. ALso, the classes include after school activities and kids stay till 4, which is great in an area where few of the international kids live nearby. This way they have fun with friends, but we don't have to drive all over the Taunus after school. The regular international schools neither teach German adequately, nor offer more than a general public education (as compared to a good public school in say NY) at a very high tuition rate with most kids in the class learning English as a second language. After grade 6, the international schools get much better, but prior to this, the classes focus on teaching English to non-English speakers. That said, FIS has a good reputation for helping children with learning disabilities, so if either of your kids needs extra help it is a good option. If your kids are advanced, however, you might consider the "alternative" options- RIMS, IBMS, Anna Schmidt Schule, or the Montessori in Kronberg (fully German-- goes through Primary school). Montessori schools offer academic advancement at their own pace with kids of their own age. In Germany they consistently score better results than public schools by the end of the primary program.

But that really can only be true for the primary years...I was brought up in Germany and went to a German Gymnasium here and when we moved back to England I was 12 months ahead of everyone in my class...unless things have changed since then!

Method of testing

The students tested by PISA are aged between 15 years and 3 months and 16 years and 2 months at the beginning of the assessment period. The school year pupils are in is not taken into consideration. Only students at school are tested, not home-schoolers. In PISA 2006 , however, several countries also used a grade-based sample of students. This made it possible also to study how age and school year interact.

Each student takes a two-hour handwritten test. Part of the test is multiple-choice and part involves fuller answers. In total there are six and a half hours of assessment material, but each student is not tested on all the parts. Participating students also answer a questionnaire on their background including learning habits, motivation and family. School directors also fill in a questionnaire describing school demographics, funding etc.

My kids, both of who went to the local german kindergarten (the feedback on the FIS pre-primary program was "it's a waste of money unless your company pays for it"), both made it into the highly-selective bilingual program at FIS (1/20 students). They're both doing great in both languages, with homework (math and all) alternating between the two languages. The secret to pushing things over the top for us was having two parents, mother native german speaker (fluent english) and father native english speaker (passable german) using the starker sprecher methode (each parent speaks exclusively in the native language with the children). They're doing great ... and not learning to smoke, swear or sass off. Only drawback: Lots of student turnover (30%-ish annually), but I think this toughens them up for the realities of the more mobile modern world. C. 250 posts on TT for me with no personal connections to date, and I'm not at all fazed.

Sure, it's "expensive", but compared to what? For a New England States-accredited college prep school, it's c. EUR12,000 each per year, but (amazingly) you can write off 30% of the tuition against your income taxes, which reduces the effective fee to EUR8,400 or EUR700 per month. Try to get that kind of deal in London or New York. Cheapskates in my neighborhood send their kids to the rotten local public schools and then turn around and pay more than that to lease their flashy cars ... and risk having them career-tracked to screw on car doors when they're 12. Nein, danke. I'll drive crap cars, eat out a bit less, and not have them hanging around the house going to endless "vocational training courses" and clubbing until they're 27.

Me,My husband and our 3 year old child is planning to relocate to Frankfurt in April 2008. For my son I am planning to admit him in a bilingual school . IBMs seesm to be the most famous one . The location of the school is Westendstrasse 45, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Parallelly I am seracing for 3 room apartment/house in a decent area which is close enough to the school, train station and other conveniences. The names mentioned in the location selection does not make sense to me at this point in time. Can some one suggest what is the area called around Westendstrasse? Also if someone suggests any other locality which is close to any other bilingual school it would be a great help.

Neighourhood should be friendly , clean , safe and convenient.
Thanks in advance