Bilingual primary school

Practical multilingualism

The primary school fulfils a fundamental educational mandate. It has to provide its pupils with basic knowledge and skills and to prepare them for the following stages of their education. Our bilingual primary school on the Frankfurt Campus also realises an agreement by the EU heads of state and government from 2002, which stipulates that all children in the European Union should have the opportunity to learn other languages alongside their mother tongue at an early age.

The bilingual primary school operates as an all-day school. Classes start at 8:00 a.m. and end at 3:00 p.m. The school week consists of 34 lesson periods, each lasting 40 minutes. The proportion of lessons taught in English in Years 1 and 2 is about 44 per cent, rising to about 50 per cent in Years 3 and 4. The bilingual education emphasises English as the first foreign language.

Tuition follows the recognised immersion method. In addition to having more lessons taught in English, the timetable includes one period of free-choice work per day, a long lunch break, and organised extra-curricular activities from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Thursday, and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday.

Children who have attended a kindergarten that has introduced English will have an advantage when transitioning to the bilingual primary school.

You can also download information about our principles of primary school education (PDF) here.