All our students sit their Intermediate Secondary School Certificate (MSA) at the end of Year 10. The Upper Secondary School Certificate (Abitur) is taken after Year 12.

As well as sitting their Upper Secondary School Certificate (Abitur), students in the top year groups may also get the "Advanced Placement International Diploma" (APID) by studying the “Advanced Placement Programme”.

This scheme offers courses at college level and prepares students for international universities and is also offered at High Schools in the USA and Canada.

Bilingualism promotes cognitive development in such areas as awareness of language, creativity and flexible thinking. Students who have been learning in a bilingual environment for many years perform at an above-average level in foreign languages, in their own mother tongue and in other subjects.

Our secondary school continues the bilingual concept introduced at nursery school and primary school. Teaching takes place in accordance with the immersion method, which means that all content is delivered exclusively in either German or English. Our secondary school students have no difficulty in following specialist content taught in English and are also able to discuss, write and give presentations in the English language.

Teachers deliver the lesson content at native speaker level. About half of subjects – a higher proportion than at the Phorms primary schools – are taught in German. Students now gain the ability to express themselves verbally and in writing in both languages as well as possible.

Each child has his or her own interests and abilities. For this reason, the Phorms concept is aligned towards the individual development of the children, featuring a high care ratio, all-day teaching, inter-disciplinary team and project work, creative learning methods and exciting afternoon activities. All of this provides the scope for individual talents to develop.

In addition to this, our teachers foster and support individual children by providing regular small-group teaching within lessons. Our Learning Support / Special Needs Programme supports children who need to catch up in a core subject such as English, reading, writing or arithmetic. The assistance provided to children with learning difficulties also enriches teaching within the class community by delivering better integration and motivation on the part of all children.

In the coming school year 2012/13, we will introduce a unitary scholarship program. The scholarship is granted to children with outstanding academic and social achievements, and gives a direct support to those children. The scholarship takes effect for one school year respectively, and may add up to a maximum of 150€ per month. The program is exclusively granted to children at the Berlin Phorms schools.

Learning is a process which requires time and creative space. For this reason, we offer “rhythmitised teaching”. Double lessons allow time for projects and individual learning methods and alternate with shorter teaching units.

The exact point at which a lesson ends is determined by the teacher as there are no bells at Phorms Education. We also include a period of “class teacher time“, during which teachers and students discuss general school issues. The structure of the day features breaks and a lunchtime period which provides enough time for both eating and relaxation. During the afternoon, students can choose from a wide range of afternoon activities.

We attach great importance to guiding our students towards autonomous learning and to supplementing our teaching by hands-on experiences. For this reason, our teachers regularly use projects as a framework for the delivery of contents.

Students undertake activities such as excursions as well as theatre and museum visits related to their current topics. They interview experts, construct models, carry out experiments and prepare presentations. The children learn how to approach a topic in an independent and creative way, how to work from a number of different angles and how to conduct a group presentation.

It is important to us that our students learn appropriate social behaviour and how to work in a group. Group work is a source of motivation for the children. They assume responsibility together, learn how to organise themselves, inject their own ideas and learn from one another. For this reason, we are always seeking to form teams. This is an approach we adopt in sport, where fair play and team work are an integral part of teaching, and as an overall philosophy which extends across the other subjects.

English and German enjoy equal status as languages of instruction. This makes bilingualism an integral part of our students’ day-to-day experience. We introduce Spanish as a further foreign language in Year 7. Those who are interested may also take French as an optional subject.

English, Biology, Arts and History are currently being studied as Upper Secondary School Certificate specialist subjects (Leistungskurse). Compulsory elective subjects presently offered are French and Economics. Together with our students we are working on the expansion of the choice of specialist and elective subjects at Upper Secondary School Certificate level from school year to school year.

The point of our bilingual concept is to teach students to feel at home in other cultures. For this reason, we offer an exchange programme during which our children spend four weeks at a Canadian school where they become part of the community.

 
We have a cooperation agreement in place with Stratford Northwestern School and Stratford Central Secondary School. Stratford is located in the South-East of Canada in the State of Ontario, about 90 miles from Toronto. It is an attractive and traditional small town with a population of 30,000. Stratford offers a rich cultural life as well as being set in interesting surroundings.

Students are accommodated with guest families and have the chance to gather a wide range of experiences and make new friends both in and out of school. The exchange is on a reciprocal basis. The Canadian students also attend our school for four weeks and are housed with their exchange families.


Students in Year 9 are helped to organise, and then undertake, a three-week period of work experience in a company of their choice. This provides an insight into the world of work and an opportunity to see business processes at first hand. The underlying aims of the programme are to allow students to examine their own areas of interest both with respect to possible later career aspirations and as regard to their further educational opportunities.