Our Gemeinschaftsschule is a high-achieving and socially fair school. It is our goal to support every single child and every single young person individually, to value diversity as a strength and to give everyone the opportunity to develop their own abilities to the full. We therefore rely on modern teaching methods, at the heart of which lie individual and shared learning. Our school community is well prepared for the upper secondary level. The concept of longer shared learning, which has been successfully practised for years, is now sensibly rounded off by this additional offer.
Many pupils in the current Year 10 of the Johannes-Brenz-Gemeinschaftsschule share this view. Their explicit wish was to be able to take their Abitur at their own school. Pupils from other schools, too, are optimally prepared for the transition to the upper secondary level with our teaching concept. The working methods used at our Gemeinschaftsschule are continued in the upper secondary level. This includes, for example, independent learning, which pupils at our school have known since Year 5 and during which they are always supported and guided by teachers, including in the upper secondary level.
Being able to organise and structure oneself and to reflect on one’s own learning is simply part of life at our school. This happens, for example, in coaching sessions, in which our pupils learn to set themselves goals and pursue them. These are precisely the skills that many students today are lacking, as universities have told us. This structured, independent learning is what sets us apart in particular.
In addition to coaching, there is a broad network of other professional cooperation partners who work at our school. These include, among others, school counsellors, social pedagogues and special needs teachers. The excellent work in our preparatory classes deserves special mention. (Pupils who work at the extended level but, for example because of a migration background, are still learning the German language are also able to take the path to the Abitur, as they can develop and extend their German language skills optimally in our preparatory classes.)
In all of our educational work, however, it is particularly important to us that we view children and young people holistically and as individual personalities. Pupils learn to get to know themselves here: they learn their strengths and they learn social togetherness. These are skills our society needs. Regardless of whether a pupil is aiming for the Hauptschul or Realschul leaving certificate or the Abitur, we want to send our pupils out into society as self-confident and mature personalities with healthy, alert minds.
Our Gemeinschaftsschule reflects our society in miniature. We are a school that truly lives educational equity and prepares all pupils optimally for life in our diverse society.
The three-year upper secondary level at the Johannes-Brenz-Gemeinschaftsschule leads to the General University Entrance Qualification (Abitur). Pupils take the binding central Abitur examinations required in Baden-Württemberg, just as at all general grammar schools (Gymnasien). The difference from the examinations at vocational grammar schools (berufliche Gymnasien) is their vocational focus. The route to the Abitur at our Gemeinschaftsschule follows a 9-year course of study (cf. “G9”), with Year 11 used as an “introductory phase” (Einführungsphase). Teaching in the upper secondary level of the Gemeinschaftsschule is delivered exclusively by teachers qualified to teach at Gymnasium level.
Pupils who have learned only one foreign language up to Year 10 can also move on to the upper secondary level of a Gemeinschaftsschule. There they can take a second foreign language from Year 11, which is required to obtain the Abitur. Pupils who have already learned a second foreign language from Year 6 must continue it in Year 11. The specialist subject (Profilfach) that pupils chose in Year 8 must also be continued in the introductory phase, i.e. Year 11. Pupils who have not taken a specialist subject so far, or who have taken one that our school does not offer, take one lesson of physics instead.
The upper secondary level of the Johannes-Brenz-Gemeinschaftsschule is open to:
Pupils at intermediate level after the Realschul leaving examination (with at least 2.0 in two of the subjects German, Maths, English, and at least 3.0 in the third, as well as an average of at least 3.0 in all subjects that are decisive for promotion)
- Pupils with a promotion certificate at extended level: (average of 4.0 or better in all subjects decisive for promotion; average of the core subjects at least 4.0, no grades of 6.0 in the core subjects)
- Pupils from Gymnasien who have successfully completed at least Year 9
Source: Über die Gemeinschaftsschule zum Abitur (2019)