Returning to Germany: how to prepare your child

Where do we start?

With a sober assessment, not with the search for a school. The decisive question is not «which school?» but «where does our child stand, measured against the German curriculum for their year?».

That question can be answered, on two separate levels. In content: which topics have been covered in the previous system and which have not? In language: does the child master the text types and technical language taken for granted in the target year?

In practice the content answer is usually reassuring. Maths is structured similarly worldwide and material can be caught up. The language answer turns out unfavourable more often — and it is precisely that answer which decides the first reports.

Where do children from abroad typically come unstuck?

The stumbling blocks are remarkably uniform — and almost all of them linguistic or formal rather than to do with content.

• Text types: summary, characterisation, essay and analysis are structured and marked differently in other school systems.
• Instruction verbs: «explain», «evaluate», «analyse» govern the whole answer and are rarely familiar.
• Technical language in maths: terms, notation and forms of presentation differ even though the content is the same.
• Pace and volume: German tests require more text in less time than many international exam formats.
• Independence: less guidance, more planning of one's own — especially from the middle years.
• Second foreign language: the most common genuine gap when a different language sequence applied abroad.

What is usually not a problem

Basic mathematical understanding, science content and English rarely cause difficulties — often the child is even at an advantage.

Everyday vocabulary is also usually unremarkable in German-speaking families. That, however, obscures the school language level, which has to be considered separately.

What does a realistic timeline look like?

Twelve months is comfortable, six is feasible, three gets tight. What matters is less the duration than the order: first assess, then work, then handle the formalities.

• 12 to 9 months before: establish the level — content gaps and language level separately. Settle the target year and school type in outline.
• 9 to 6 months before: work deliberately on text types and technical language. In parallel, look at schools in the destination and make contact.
• 6 to 3 months before: assemble reports, certificates and enrolment documents. Clarify what the receiving school requires.
• 3 to 1 month before: close the content gaps that genuinely matter. Do not try to catch up on everything.
• First 8 weeks after arrival: add no extra load. Arrive, observe, and only then adjust.

Which formalities do we have to clarify?

In Germany, education is a matter for the individual federal states. What one state requires does not necessarily apply in the next — and what a website says may be out of date. The most reliable route is therefore always to ask the receiving school and the education authority of the destination state directly.

What you will need in any case are complete reports from the last few years, ideally with translations, and a description of the educational path so far: school type, language sequence, range of subjects. The clearer those documents are, the smoother the placement.

Two points are worth clarifying early, because they set the course for everything after: the year group your child is admitted to, and the recognition of the foreign languages studied so far. Both are hard to correct later.

Should we have our child repeat a year?

This question comes up more often than families expect, and it has no universal answer. It depends on age, on the point in the school year, on the previous system and above all on the child.

In favour of a lower placement is that it creates time for the language build-up without every grade counting — especially ahead of examination years. Against it is the social aspect: a year's age difference weighs heavily in adolescence.

What has proved itself in practice: do not base the decision on gaps alone but on the question of which arrangement allows the child to show what they can do. A well-prepared child in the regular year usually fares better than an unprepared one a year below.

What helps the child besides school?

More than usually features in preparation plans. Changing schools across borders is for children first a social upheaval and only then an academic one.

A child who finds a footing in the new class also catches up academically faster. Clubs, sport and music are often more effective than any extra study hour — they deliver, in passing, exactly the everyday language and the sense of belonging that make the difference at school.

Equally important is the expectation at home. If the first reports come out worse than usual, that is not a step backwards but the normal course of things. Children who hear this from their parents do not give up.

Frequently asked questions