Relocating families are, in most cases, entitled to enter the German federal education system, with the obvious challenge for many that classes will be taught in German. Each federal state has primary responsibility for the legislation and administration of its schools, and requires children to attend school for nine or ten years from around the age of six. Pre-school education is not compulsory, but most


families place their children in kindergarten between the ages of three and six. From the age of six, children enter primary school (Grundschule).


It is at the secondary stage of schooling that Germany has


made its biggest reforms following the PISA shock. PISA now regularly tests a selection of 15-year-olds in OECD countries in reading, maths and science. In the first of these tests, back in 2000, German schoolchildren scored below the average of the tested nations.


Germany was quick to recognise that the rigid streaming of pupils aged between ten and 12 was contributing to the inequality of performance amongst the nation’s children. Under this system, bright and academic pupils were moved


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