From primary school to gymnasium in Munich

The education system in Germany and in Bavaria is structured so that after 4 years of primary school (Grundschule) a child has to choose the direction in which he or she wants to develop further. ( more details you can look at interactive portal, there is even a scheme in Russian and Ukrainian ). The average grade point (which is the average of the three subjects - Deutsch, Mathematics and HSU) is a system that allows you to make a choice when you are at the age of 10 and helps you decide which level of school you would like to continue to study. Depending on the grade point average, the pupil can go to Gymnasium, Realschule or Junior High School (Mittelschule). Let's take a closer look at the transition from primary school to Gymnasium.

As previously mentioned, the average grade in the three main subjects is used to select children for the Gymnasium, which varies from year to year.

Average mark. Übertrittszeugnis

For the school year 2023/2024, the average mark for admission to the Gymnasium is 2.33.

What does this mean?

Pupils take various tests and examinations throughout the 4th year of school to establish their acquired knowledge. At the end of the year, the pupil receives a school leaving certificate package which contains a very important sheet - the final grades (Übertrittszeugnis). These grades are used to see if your child is suitable for gymnasium or if it will be hard for him/her to study there. These grades are not always taken into account but only the grades in the core subjects as mentioned above. This means that in 2023, all you need for admission to gymnasium is a grade of 2-2-3 in three subjects - German (Deutsch), Mathematics (Mathematik) and Environment (HSU).

If your child does not attain the correct average but your parents insist that your child should attend gymnasium, you can enrol your child in a trial course (Probeunterricht), after which the child will pass the exam and also have a chance of admission to a gymnasium..

Parents meetings. Informationsabend.

From about mid-February to the end of March, schools hold information evenings for prospective gymnasium students and their parents at which they talk about the main areas of study at the school, what extra lessons are available and all sorts of organisational matters. In the schools that I visited as a parent, there were even children's shows with different kinds of performances. So be patient, an evening like this can easily last 2-3 hours. A kind of fair where the school presents itself and helps the child and the parent to decide whether they want to go to this particular school or whether it is better to look at other options nearby.

Each school chooses its own day and time for the information evening, so you should check the school's website for details (most of them have a website) or you can call the school secretariat and ask everything over the phone. It is easy to find the school's website - just find the nearest school on google maps and from there go to the school's website. If the information on the maps has not been updated, google the name of the school and one of the first links is sure to be correct.

Gymnasium is suitable for your child if...

At any parents' meeting about the transition from primary school, the topic touches on what a child should be like if he or she is going to go to gymnasium. Good grades alone are not enough, but they could be the result of mum and dad sitting up all night with the child memorising another HSU topic or solving maths problems. At the meetings, therefore, the following qualities were emphasised, which the child should have:

• likes to reflect
• hardworking
• Is independent and creative in his or her approach to the task
• Is eager to learn
• has a fertile imagination
• Can deal with stress
• loves to read

The demands may seem daunting, but it is worth bearing in mind that after primary school, the workload increases enormously and, most importantly, the pupil now has to do a lot of his or her own work. In gymnasium, no one will run after a pupil to check their homework, because it will be clear at the test whether the homework has been done or not.

The main qualities that I would like to point out for myself are diligence and independence. If a child needs a mum or a dad to do his homework in primary schools, who sit next to him or stand behind him, then it will probably be hard for such a child in gymnasium and evenings will be spent fighting about bad grades or incomplete homework. But if a child is cracking homework like peanuts and you remember about the school only when you sign another test - then you can try to catch up in the gymnasium. Otherwise, you can always go to middle school without losing a year.

Choice of school.

We, as parents, decided to send our child to study science, so we only considered technical schools. In German it sounds like "Naturwissenschaftlich-technologisches Gymnasium" (you should save it in your notes, because it might help you a lot in finding a school if you also decide to take this path for your child). These gymnasiums are scattered all over Munich and because we live in the south of the city we looked at gymnasiums in the area. There were a few of them:

Klenze-Gymnasium München

The school's website: Klenze-Gymnasium München – naturwissenschaftlich-technologisches Gymnasium

As the headmaster said at the information evening - the gymnasium is not young, but it is actively growing, so now a new building is being built on the school grounds, so pupils sometimes have to study under the noise of construction work and endure the mud from the trucks with construction materials entering the grounds. The new building is planned to open in 2026, if I am not wrong (I did not find this information on the website). In addition to the standard school curriculum for a technical gymnasium, which includes two foreign languages (in this school you can choose between English + Latin and English + French), from 11th grade Chinese, a student exchange programme with France, Greece, Israel and the USA. Also offered are a trip to a school boarding house in 5th grade, a skiing trip in 6th grade, sports weeks in the summer, outings to the mountains with the class. Under the same roof as the technical gymnasium is the Dante language gymnasium. As the headmaster joked at the meeting - when you apply, the most important thing is to put your envelope in the right envelope box, because the boxes in both gymnasia are next to each other and you have to read carefully which one is which. The school also has a strong focus on music lessons. As an additional activity, students are encouraged to enrol in a string class. At the information evening the pupils in this class, who are in grade 6, performed the main theme of the film Pirates of the Caribbean. At the information evening the director tried to convince us that applying for music classes is not the main criterion in selecting students for the upper secondary school, but despite this, many parents concluded after the meeting that only those who have applied for music classes will be accepted into the upper secondary school. Running a little ahead I will say that this feeling is misleading, we applied to this gymnasium without enrolling in a music school and passed.

The school does not have its own sports hall and has to rent premises for sports classes. Therefore pupils sometimes have to use public transport to get to PE.

Erasmus-Grasser-Gymnasium

The school's website: EGG München - Startseite

A very large school, a new building is being built, some classes are now held in construction containers set up as classrooms, but there are plans to move into the new building, which is already being equipped. The figure of 1200 pupils was announced at the meeting, which negates all the talk about individual approach, about which there was so much talk at the meeting. According to the director and teachers, the school is not badly equipped, the classes are quite spacious, with an average of 25 pupils per class. From class 5 you learn English, from class 6 you may choose French or Latin. In class 8, chemistry and physics are studied in depth. From Class 9 Computer Science is added. In 11th class you may change to Italian. The school has various support systems for the transition from primary school: the tutor system (where older pupils help younger pupils if they have questions); the so-called open breakfasts where you can meet new people and make friends; learning rallies (I am not sure what these are); a joint trip to the boarding school with other pupils and the homeroom teacher. The school also offers a pupil exchange programme with France and Italy. There are many sports classes at the school that your child can enrol in, including swimming, field hockey, football, American football and bouldering, to name but a few.

Thomas-Mann-Gymnasium

The school's website: Startseite

Just before the information evening at the school, we all fell ill and missed the meeting, so there's no secret knowledge about the school. Except that the school year 2025/2026 starts in the new building, which is much bigger than the old one. At the parents' meeting that was held in the primary school, the director of the school gave a general description of studies in gymnasium and said that children would have to work hard and independently in gymnasium and they would have to acquire knowledge. There were fears that the teaching staff would be expanded for the new building, which could have a negative impact on the quality of teaching, but so far these are just fears.

Gymnasium Fürstenried

The school's website: Startseite

The school had a new building in 2022 and it looks very nice from the outside. An acquaintance who moved there from our own primary school is quite happy with it; the gymnasium is part of the so-called learning centre (Schulzentrum), which means that all types of secondary school (including gymnasium, middle school and junior high school) are in the neighbourhood. This fact, combined with the reviews on the Internet and the opinions of acquaintances who have lived in Munich for decades, prompted us not to consider this school. At the information evening in Klenze-Gymnasium the director said that they can recommend to apply for the school if there are no more places available (the school will coordinate the availability of places in the second gymnasium beforehand, according to the director).

Privates Gymnasium Huber

The school's website: Privates Gymnasium Huber - Schulverbund München

I can't say anything about the school building, as it is the only school where the information evening took place in an online format. Apart from the fact that the gymnasium is private, another special feature of the school is the teaching concept, which the director talked about extensively during the information evening. The basic teaching concept is that the child should have time off from homework. That is, the child comes to school at 8am, goes home at 4pm and leaves all textbooks at school in a special box. At home, the child should be able to communicate with parents in peace and parents should be minimally involved in the learning process, which should minimise family conflicts over grades. The timetable of the school is such that lessons in one subject are double. In the first lesson the teacher explains the material and in the second lesson the child practises the material and does homework. This way there is no need to do anything at home. Children do not bring their work and homework home, the whole process takes place at school. Despite the concept of no homework, it was noted that learning foreign languages has not been abandoned. Similarly to state gymnasiums, foreign language learning begins in fifth and sixth class, which requires memorisation of vocabulary, which has to be learned at home; there is no getting away from this. Otherwise, the director promised free time for his pupils. Much was said about the well-equipped classrooms with modern technology and the availability of tablets in some classes. Given the fact that this is the only school that held an online information evening, the director was not lying about the modernly equipped classrooms. The director also emphasised that the school does not tolerate bullying or harassment of any kind. If this happens, the perpetrators are warned first and then they may be expelled. The school has its own swimming pool and in winter the pupils all go to the cottage in Austria together. What was not quite clear from the presentation - what areas of study the school offers, what additional activities and sections there are. But the rest of the material is top-notch.

Now the most important thing about the private school is the cost of tuition. For the academic year 2023/2024 the price of 440 euros per month was announced (last year it was less than 400 euros per month)

Submission of documents to the school

The list of required documents can usually be found on the school's website. It may be posted at the same time as the application date is announced, it may be listed on a flyer, which can also be downloaded from the website, or it may be published shortly before the application date. In the whole application process it is worth noting the following:

1. The most important document is the pupil's attestation sheet, which must be submitted in the original. This is announced at every information evening at each school. However, there are parents who make colour copies of this document in order to apply to several schools. In one of the schools at the information evening we specifically discussed such a case and warned against doing so, because the local gymnasia exchanges information with each other in order to be aware of the number of classes and to be able to send students to nearby schools of the same profile in time if there are no places in their school. In this case, the forgery is bound to come to light, which can create a very unpleasant situation and some problems with enrolment.
2. Some schools have pre-registration (Voranmeldung). At the parents' meeting at the primary school some parents claimed that this might increase the chances of the child getting into the chosen school. We have not checked this option, as it is still necessary to submit original documents to one single school and the benefits are not clear, but such options can also be taken into consideration.
3. It makes sense that parents and pupils may have a priority of the schools they would like to attend. For this reason, some schools give you the opportunity to indicate which school is the next priority for you. That way, if the child, for whatever reason, does not get into the chosen school, the school will try to do everything possible to ensure that the child can get a place in the school that they have indicated as a fallback option. Of course, this should be a school in the same part of town.

Getting the results

As you can read on the websites of schools after the application deadline, the results of the selection process are published on the school's homepage. But do not be in a hurry to see your child's name there. You will only be told that all those who have applied have been accepted to the school. The lists of all students and classes will be on the school's web site at the beginning of the school year and there is no point in calling the school by phone. Or there will be a wish for success for those to whom the school had to refuse to accept your child in the fifth class. In the case of rejection, the school should call you and may offer you alternatives, where you should rush to bring your documents. At the Klenze-Gymnasium meeting, the director said that the school will contact the nearest gymnasium of the same type to find out if there is a place for the child before refusing him/her a place in the gymnasium. Therefore, in this case, it is better to follow the school's advice and go to the gymnasium that they advise - there is likely to be a place already booked for you there. After the first school year, you can change to another grammar school that you like better.

Helpful links

Reimbursement of travel to school in Munich (Fahrtkostenerstattung Schulweg)

School transport compensation from the outskirts of Munich (Schülerfahrkarten)

Special fares for students in Munich (Der Ausbildungstarif)