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Hello everyone,   I need a bit of guidance in a difficult scenario I have found myself in.     I have been in Germany since 2013 and in nearly all aspects of my life I have been successful here. I married in 2017 and my husband and I have a child.   I have cerebral palsy which means I walk differently but other physical and cognitive functions are normal and intact. I do have the ‘Schwerbehinderung’ status at 60 percent.     I am a trained teacher (but I do not have the full qualification yet to work in state schools) and have been working with students in some capacity since 2009. My first job in Germany was rough. I experienced a lot of mobbing at the bilingual kita where I worked, the climate there was so tense that nobody ever seemed happy or professionally fulfilled.   I worked there for two and a half years before moving on to work as a teacher at a bilingual school teaching English and Politics. This school is classified as an Ersatz Schule (private but at least partially funded by the state) I was at this school for six years. Overall, it was a good place to work with decent colleagues. Student behaviour, lack of funding and staff, and teaching through the pandemic was very tough. I finished my contract in June when it was revealed that the school could not afford to have me work full-time.     I thought I had gotten lucky when I landed a fulltime contract at an ‘international school’. I was getting on well with my new students and curriculum. Yesterday without any notice I was dismissed and since I was in Probezeit that was it. Administration said I did nothing wrong, but they were unnecessarily curt and cold. I was given a lot of support from other staff who told me outright this had happened to other people.  The school is very image conscious and I suspect my physical difference didn’t positively contribute to that. The job was incredibly time consuming and didn’t work well with a balanced family life but all the same I am angry and sad that seemingly no thought was given to how such an abrupt change would affect students or myself. I am not entirely sure if the correct protocol was followed considering my status but that might be a better question for a lawyer.   I feel comfortable with who I am and the way I was made by nature, I think having this issue has made me more compassionate and built my good character, but I am becoming more and more aware that much of German society (at least where I am) doesn’t’ often seem to know how to accommodate or react to people with obvious physical disabilities.   The realization that no matter how well spoken I am, how kind I am or qualified I am might never trump my disability has caused me a great deal of stress and insecurity. It makes me incredibly upset when people assume that my physical difference must be an indicator of intellectual difference/disability.   It wasn’t until I came to Germany that I am experienced *adults* making fun of the way I walk and stares.      I am afraid to apply for my next job and this coupled with probable teacher burnout has really made me question where  I belong and where  I go from here. I am emotionally fragile at the moment of course.  I have consistently found that students don’t care about my disability, but some other people do. I used to love teaching but now I find myself just wanting to find a job where I can be a positive influence and ‘make a difference.' I am trying not to become cynical or sad.   Any ideas, insight or words of comfort? Thanks.  

Hi guys,    So, there has not been a post about english-speaking schools in a while.  I guess it's an evergreen though.    So, looking to sign up my kid next summer for first grade. We are looking at BBS, Metropolitan, Cosmopolitan, Phorms.  (So hard to keep them straight!)   For now BBS looks nice and affordable to me, but admissions appear to be quite competitive. Unsure about the others still - their admissions are nebulous, and I do not even know when they would get back to me after a brief "online" form filled in.    Has someone done the research and could perhaps share some insight as to admissions procedure / timeline, how hard they are to get into, cost, and of course quality?    Thanks SO MUCH.    St 

Hello all, Does anyone have experience teaching kids with either dyslexia (Legesthenia) or ADD/ADHD? This school year I'll be working with grades 5-10 at our local Mittelschule, where many of the kids have been recognized as having one or both of these disorders. Any and all info is helpful! Thanks in advance- you can reply here or PM me. -b