How To: Secure your children a good education with the Deutsche Fernschule (German correspondence school)

Many question, obstacles and challenges are part of the decision to live abroad. Especially for families with school children, many questions arise concerning school and education. We interviewed Georg A. Pfluegner, director of the Deutsche Fernschule (German correspondence school) that offers a comprehensive, individual and modularly structured education program for elementary school children. Find more information here.

The American Dream (TAD): Which grades are included in the offer of the Deutsche Fernschule?

GP: Our education letters include complete and comprehensive teaching materials, which allow German children abroad to acquire the same knowledge and skills as children of the same age in German elementary schools.

We offer pre-school modules (from age three) and kindergarten lessons (from age five). In addition, we offer material for elementary school children from grades 1-4 (German, math, Sachkunde (Engl.: general education).

From second grade on we offer a beginner’s course for English (E1) and an advanced course (E2). Those two courses cover the entire curricular contents of German elementary schools. Grade 5 German and math courses are also available.

 

TAD: What are the requirements for the children?

GP: A basic requirement is an age-appropriate knowledge of German. We don’t offer language courses. If the child is transferring to us from a German-speaking elementary school, a copy of the last end-of term report card will be sufficient. In all other cases, we will conduct a placement test. We want our lessons to be neither too easy nor too difficult for the children, so that upon their return to Germany, they are prepared as well as possible to be reintegrated into the German education system.

 

TAD: How much time will a child need? What is the syllabus like for a week or a year?

GP: Depending on the choice of subjects, we make suggestions for possible daily schedules. Essentially it looks like this: A one-year course for one subject is divided up into 200-280 lessons (one of our lessons is approximately the equivalent of one school lesson). They can be completed in one year, if a child finishes between five and seven lessons a week. Two months are set aside as vacation time. A school year can begin at any given point during a year, depending on individual circumstances. Variations from our suggested schedules can be arranged at any time. We offer a high level of flexibility.

 

TAD: How exactly does the distance learning work?

GP: As soon as the child’s first placement tests are submitted, we will assign a teacher who will be responsible for that child and the first contact for child and family over the course of the whole year. Our teachers are trained elementary school teachers who know day-today school life first hand. Some of them have been living abroad for a while as well. Over the course of the school year the teacher will find out about the child’s strengths and weaknesses and adjust the lessons accordingly.

After the teacher has read, corrected, and evaluated the child’s test, he or she will send it back to the family together with a personal letter. This “teacher’s letter” is partly a tool for establishing contact, but also an instrument for motivating the child to learn through both praise and criticism. The teacher will write letters to the parents after the first and third quarter of the school year and inform them about their child’s learning progress. Beyond that, parents can contact the teacher anytime if they have any questions. After all of one school year’s tests have been submitted, the teacher will write a final report card. If the child has finished fourth grade and is supposed to start fifth, the teacher will write a recommendation for the new school.

 

TAD: Do you offer bilingual classes?

GP: Our lessons require an age-appropriate knowledge of German and will be given in German entirely. Sometimes, children will only enroll for one subject (e.g. German) and in a addition attend a local national or international school where lessons are given in the foreign language.

 

TAD: What do the parents have to do?

GP: For successful distance learning, a child needs someone at home to supervise the lessons. This can be parents or other German-speaking people (au pair, volunteers). The tutor doesn’t need educational training. His or her job is to organize and supervise the lessons. More precisely, this includes organizing a set time and place for the lessons, working on the lessons with the child, and staying in contact with the school in Germany. In addition to some proficiency tests that can be corrected by the child himself/herself with the help of the answer sheets we provide, each course also includes 20-25 tests. Those tests will be sent to the school via email, mail or fax by the tutor.

 

TAD: So with regard to compulsory school attendance in the US, it is no problem to just attend the Deutsche Fernschule?

GP: Compulsory school attendance in the US is something that is handled on a state level. In twelve states, school attendance is compulsory from the age of six to the age of eighteen. The American educational system is made up of public schools as well an extensive network of private institutions. Over the course of the last 25 years, the so-called “home schooling” has also been established as an acceptable for of education, today it is possible as an alternative in every state. At present, approximately 2 million children in the US are being home schooled, or receive an education without attending school. By now these teaching models are widely used in the English-speaking world and sometimes even supported by the state.

So it is possible to receive a complete education with Deutsche Fernschule without having to attend a local school. Many of our students in the US and Canada attend a local public or private school and take German lessons with us to maintain their proficiency in that language.

 

TAD: Do all German schools recognize your teaching concepts and report cards/certificates?

GP: The report cards or certificates of some German schools abroad are the equivalent of report cards and certificates of German schools within the Federal Republic of Germany. Essentially, any student who attended a German school abroad should be able to transfer to a German school in Germany without having to take a placement test, if he or she has the appropriate report card or certificate. Since our government-certified courses are based on a synopsis of the curricula of all German states, they will be recognized just as report cards of German schools abroad. After a 40-year experience with these things, we can confirm that it works indeed.

 

TAD: What are the school fees for Deutsche Fernschule?

GP: Each course costs € 110 per month and child. If a child enrolls in two courses, there is a 15 percent discount on the total fee for both courses, and even more for three or more courses per child.

The basic materials such as textbooks and learning material cost between € 33 and € 116 a year, depending on subject and grade.

 

TAD: Thank you for talking to us, Mr. Pfluegner!