Bilingualism & Foreign Languages

English proficiency from year 5 onwards is generally considerably higher at our school, as our students benefit from the bilingual skills they acquire during four years of primary school.

Starting at lower secondary level, approximately half of our lessons are taught in English. We continue to adhere to the principle of “One Face – One Language”. This means that each person is assigned one language in everyday school life. All teaching facilities employ native speakers from English-speaking countries as assistant teachers. This teaches children and teenagers to express themselves naturally and effortlessly in both languages.

From year 5 onwards, particularly strong students have the option of choosing an additional Spanish course.

The second compulsory language is French, which is taught from year 6 (as per Gymnasium standard). It is an elective subject, which means that it can – but does not have to be – selected. From year 7, students can also switch to other elective subjects.

We are also planning to offer another modern language (likely to be Spanish) at upper secondary level to students who have not yet studied a second foreign language. This will allow them to progress from the lower to the upper secondary level with English as their only foreign language, provided they pass their lower secondary examination. The advantage? Students with an affinity for STEM subjects over languages get to concentrate fully on the former throughout their lower secondary studies. Their first foreign language, English, is acquired naturally as a result of the bilingual teaching system.

The primary goal of all language teaching at our school is the development of outstanding communicative skills.