christine.j

Private schools are mostly  from 5th grade on, and  usually children attend the  elementary school which is closest to their home. If you want to change school, you'll need a good reason to send your son out of the catchment area. Sending him to a private school is a good reason, some parents say their child lives with grandma now and attends school there. You could move, but all this is very difficult if you have no family close-by. There is a Montessori school in Weinheim, but I don't know anything about it. The private MIS in Viernheim gets very mixed reviews. I used to know a family whose daughter attended it, they were more than happy. This was several years ago, though, and from what  I hear now, the school has got worse. There are some posts about it here.   Maybe you can continue trying to improve the situation at your son's current school. A lot depends on the teacher, some go out of their way to help the children, others don't bother at all. Have you talked to the Elternbeirat yet? How is your son's teacher seen by the other parents? How good is your son's German? Does he get extra tutoring in the afternoon? Either in one of the Nachhilfeschulen or by a private tutor?  If you can get someone who knows your son's school, it'll help him a lot. What about his friends' parents? Have you talked to them about the situation?   Good luck to you and your son.

The special from Mannheimer Morgen is only about schools from fifth grade on, so it won't help you much now if your son is in third grade.  The only private elementary school about which I have some personal knowledge is the Waldorfschule. A family I knew had two children there from first grade on, one of them liked it very much and stayed to the Abitur, the other one liked it but decided to change into a state school for fifth grade, mostly because of friends going there. It 's a school in which the parents are supposed to do more than just pay tuition, but also help with fixing things, painting the classroom etc. It's also a school with a special philosophy, either you like it or you don't.  A family member of mine did great in a Waldorf school, but not every family will or can give the support they expect.   http://www.waldorfschule-mannheim.de/deutsch/freie-waldorf-schule-mehr-informationen.html   It seems to be all in German. If your child does not speak German yet, do get a private tutor. It's mostly up to the teacher, how much help a non-speaking child will get, some teachers go out of their way , sadly mostly won't.   I'm sure there are other private elementary schools in Mannheim, probably run by the church, but I don't have any personal knowledge about them.

How old are your children? Are you thinking of elementary school or from fifth grade on? Do you read German? The local paper Mannheimer Morgen published a special just a few weeks ago, introducing all schools from fifth grade on. You can get it at their booth in Thalia on the Planken, cost is 3,50 Euro.  I can recommend it, it gives a lot of info, also about costs of the private schools. The open days of the secondary schools are coming up now, that's also a good way of learning more about them.