School overview

Compulsory schooling begins for all children when they reach school entry age by a certain date. The individual federal states determine when the cut-off date is. In Thuringia, all children are required to attend school in the year in which they are 6 years old up to and including August 1st.

The vacations vary from state to state and so does the first day of the school year. In Thuringia, the school year usually begins after the end of the summer vacation in August.

Compulsory schooling also applies to children and young people with disabilities or special educational needs.

As a parent, you are obliged to register your child for school and ensure that they attend classes. Full-time compulsory education lasts 10 school years. It can be shortened by skipping a grade.

A third year of school attendance in the school entry phase is not counted towards the duration of compulsory full-time schooling.

If children of compulsory school age come to Germany, compulsory schooling begins at the latest when they are required to register in Germany.

1. All children in Thuringia who turn 6 by August 1 are required to attend school in the year in question. Children who are at least 5 years old by June 30 and meet the relevant requirements can also be registered for the new school year.
2. You will receive a school registration form for your child by post, usually around 4 to 6 weeks before the registration date. The registration day is usually in December before the child starts school.
3. On this day, you register your child at the primary or secondary school of your choice. Your child will then be allocated a place at this school or an alternative school, depending on capacity.
4. You must present your registered and school-age child for an enrolment examination. Here, the suitability of your child as a future school child will be determined and a recommendation will be made to enrol your child or, if necessary, to postpone enrolment.
5. Dates for the school entry examination are announced in the kindergartens and daycare centers and take place in the spring of the school entry year. Your child's attendance is compulsory.

Children who have already started school and who wish to transfer to a school in Jena from Germany or abroad should contact the relevant school directly to register.

From the first grade onwards, your child will receive 2 school reports per school year.

The mid-year report informs you about the interim status of academic performance and is issued in February. At the end of the school year before the summer vacations, your child will receive an end-of-year report, which determines promotion to the next grade.

In grades 1 and 2, the report card does not yet contain grades, but a detailed written assessment of the student's level of knowledge, performance and social behavior. Even with the later introduction of overall grades, an abbreviated assessment of the development of skills remains part of the report card for the time being.

Occasionally, schools offer in-depth and advisory report interviews, particularly with regard to the development of your child's school career.

School grades

In general, your child's school performance is graded from 1 for very good performance to 6 for unsatisfactory performance. At some comprehensive schools, grades are not awarded until grade 4 or later.

The half-year report of the fourth grade is particularly important for pupils who want to attend a grammar school. This change of school is only possible if sufficiently good grades are achieved. Your child may also be able to transfer to a grammar school at a later date.

Grading will change in the gymnasiale Oberstufe when it is replaced by a points system. For more than very good performance, 15 points are awarded. The grading system goes down to 0 points for unsatisfactory school performance.

If a child is allowed to move up to the next class level, they are promoted. Promotion is linked to sufficient academic performance. If a pupil is not promoted, he or she repeats the school year in the grade level last attended.

In addition, a grade level can be repeated or skipped voluntarily. This is recommended in the case of appropriate academic performance. A repeat can also make sense after a long absence, e.g. due to illness.

In principle, any grade level can be repeated voluntarily if it has not been repeated before. However, the total number of repetitions permitted is limited.

The promotion decision depends on the grades achieved, especially in German, mathematics and the first foreign language. Poor grades can be compensated to a certain extent by very good to satisfactory grades, but unsatisfactory grades cannot.

Promotion decisions are made in grades 4, 6 and 8 to 10. Pupils in grades 5 and 7 move up to the next grade without a promotion decision.

In general, attendance at state schools is free of charge as part of compulsory education. If your child attends a private school, you will have to pay monthly costs, the amount of which is determined by the school itself.

However, additional costs are incurred for all types of schools, e.g. for school materials, teaching materials, class funds and excursions such as hiking days, visits to the theater or school trips. Meals or after-school care must also be paid for.

If your child takes the school bus, transportation costs are incurred. If you are entitled to receive benefits for education and participation, you can receive financial support for most of the expenses. Childcare costs are also adjusted according to your income.

Link to

• Calculation of after-school care fees

The city of Jena supports the concept of inclusion. Joint teaching enables all pupils to have equal access to educational opportunities.

Children with developmental delays and disabilities as well as gifted pupils learn together and benefit from this diversity. Joint teaching is designed to be flexible enough to allow each pupil to develop their individual abilities.

Children who require an exceptionally high level of support learn in special schools.

Learning aids

There are dense networks of many different players so that pupils and parents are not left alone with their individual problems. They can often find contacts and support services directly at school.

Private tuition is usually offered by older pupils, students or agencies.

If there is a specific need for support, you can contact the relevant pediatrician, who will decide on possible therapeutic measures. You can also seek help from advice centers at any time.

Language support

Integration succeeds through communication. Pupils who have not yet mastered the German language can take advantage of various support services or learn in special German as a second language classes (DaZ classes).

As a foreign-language parent, you can make use of the help of interpreters to find out about your child's personal development in parent-teacher conferences.

Financial aid

Even if school attendance itself is free of charge in most cases, you will have to pay for school materials, excursions, school trips, meals and after-school care.

Depending on your income, you can apply for financial support in all these areas through benefits for education and participation from the jobcenter or the social services department.

Links

• Integration and inclusion
• Education and participation

If you do not achieve a desired qualification during your regular schooling or would like to upgrade your qualification, you can also achieve this retrospectively via alternative routes.

It is generally not recommended to skip a school-leaving qualification because the increase in difficulty is very high. In principle, however, a particular qualification is not tied to previous qualifications, unless previous qualifications are an entry requirement for the desired place of study. Exam preparation is generally subject to a fee.

The Federal Employment Agency provides an overview of the ways in which school-leaving qualifications can be obtained in Thuringia.

Links

• Catching up on school-leaving qualifications - immediately after general schooling
• Catching up on school-leaving qualifications - second-chance education
• Ways to catch up on school-leaving qualifications in Thuringia (PDF)

Lessons do not have to and should not only take place in the classroom. In addition to traditional lessons, the school also offers projects, internships, excursions and hiking days to extracurricular places of learning.

Classes visit a theater performance, the zoo, the planetarium, a concert or hike through the forest and familiarize themselves with plants and animals. These excursions are part of the lessons and are also compulsory.

Sports and school festivals also count as lessons. Class trips are also part of the curriculum. The pupils supplement their lessons with trips to politically, historically, culturally or naturally significant places and spend 3 to 5 days intensively studying the respective topic.

Many classes also organize events such as class parties or reading nights. Your child will also benefit from voluntary activities and gain the important experience that learning is possible in many different ways.