From the 2024/25 school year, the Karl-Liebknecht-Gymnasium in Frankfurt (Oder) will be setting up a language learning class for Polish for the first time. This will enable even more pupils to learn the language – from as early as Year 5 in future. The Ministry of Education (MBJS) and the city of Frankfurt (Oder) also see this offer as a further contribution to intensifying neighbourly relations with Poland.
Minister of Education Steffen Freiberg: "Language is more than just a means of communication. Language stands for cultural characteristics and traditions and opens the door to other nations. At Karl-Liebknecht-Gymnasium in Frankfurt (Oder), this realization is put into practice as a school offer. Polish contacts are part of everyday life in this border region. This is also demonstrated by the great interest shown by many families in the foreign languages offered by the grammar school - one of 20 European schools in Brandenburg. With the expansion of the school experiment, the school, the city as the school authority and the state of Brandenburg are making a further strong contribution to cross-border, European understanding."
Mayor René Wilke: "In our European twin city of Frankfurt (Oder) - Słubice, we can offer young people something that they cannot learn elsewhere. Two important European languages, Polish and German, to use in everyday life, with friends, on the street, in the café. We are very pleased about the new Polish class from year 5 as a further milestone in strengthening the neighboring language in the German-Polish border region."
The multilingualism concept of the state of Brandenburg provides for an expansion of linguistic diversity as well as the strengthening and promotion of minority and neighboring languages. At Frankfurt's Karl-Liebknecht-Gymnasium, a school experiment is already in its third year, in which extended and contemporary forms of teaching Polish are being developed and tested. There is a great deal of interest in this: around half of all 850 pupils at the European school are learning Polish. The various forms of teaching on offer include differentiated courses for beginners, advanced learners and experts, the LATARNIA project class with regular teaching days at a Polish school in Słubice and bilingual courses in the subjects of art, music and history.
The school trial at Karl-Liebknecht-Gymnasium will be expanded in the 2024/25 school year to include an additional class, which will start as a language learning class for Polish from Year 5. The introduction of Polish as a foreign language in this year group will provide pupils with two additional years of learning time. This offer is deliberately and primarily aimed at those who are interested in learning Polish.
Registration
If parents are interested, they can register their children directly at Karl-Liebknecht-Gymnasium. The school will hold an information event for this purpose on Saturday, March 2, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. and present the application and selection process. As part of the ongoing school trial, modalities for the application process were defined together with the Ministry of Education, which take into account, among other things, the half-year report of grade 4 and an entrance test.
Further information
Further information can be found under the following links:
Language learning class at Karl-Liebknecht-Gymnasium