# Schooling



## acrowley

Hi There,

First time poster here. My husband is starting a job in Dresden in May and myself and the kids are moving over there in the summer after they have finished school here. We are planning to enroll them into the local German school here, I suppose my question is, do they provide extra German classes for non German speaking children, like they do here for non English speakers. Also, did you find that your children settled in quickly to the school and language? Forgot to say that my kids will be 11 and 9 at the time. I am getting some DVD's for them and books so that they will have the basics and also plan to enrol in German classes myself when we get there.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


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## James3214

Hi. Welcome to the forum.
I have friends who have come to Germany and put their kids (ages 9-14) in German schools and they all got extra German tuition at the start. It was hard at first, especially for the older one, but now they are all fluent and have integrated really well and are very happy. It helps if they have hobbies or sports which will help them integrate and make friends a lot faster. I hope it will be a great experience for you all. Dresden has been redeveloped over the years and from visits there it seems a great place to live. Vibrant social and cultural scene and the architecture is just fantastic.


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## acrowley

Thanks for the reply, puts my mind at ease a bit. Really looking forward to moving there. I'm sure that I'll have lots of questions over the coming weeks. It's great to have some kind of idea what we're heading into. Again thanks.

Ann


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## JuliaRBene

Hi - we're also moving to Germany with our two sons (ages 9 and 11). We're headed for Berlin. 

I'm wondering if anyone can weigh in on the issue of which type of local school the children could end up in. I'm referring to the Gymnasium/Realschule question. 

Our oldest will enter 6th grade, which in Berlin is the decision year. Since he speaks practically no German, I'm wondering if they will automatically put him in a lower school, or if there's a chance they will give him extra time and some tutoring in German to catch him up before they place him. I would prefer a local school to an international school, since I'm convinced he would learn German more slowly if he has a lot of English-speaking children to hang around with. I'm less concerned about our younger son, since he has a couple of years before he hits that "magical" 6th grade year!

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Juliana


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## Andy36

Maybe think about an international school? I know from Leipzig (not far away from Dresden) there is an international school, so then the language is no problem...


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