Gymnasium Riedberg
International Meeting School
Bilingual School for Natural Sciences and Languages
Dear parents of the primary school students,
Founded in 2009, Gymnasium Riedberg is Frankfurt’s most ambitious school development project.
Situated right next to Science City Frankfurt Riedberg, a place of cooperation between Goethe University (GU), Max Planck Institute of Biophysics, Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) and Frankfurt Innovation Centre Biotechnology (FIZ), the school aims at students with high interests and abilities in natural sciences, technology and international cooperation.
Currently, 1500 students are on roll at Gymnasium Riedberg (year 5 / age 10 to year 12 / age 18). Since 2014 all new forms are taught according to the G9-Curriculum.
The variety of international backgrounds of our students reflects the internationality of the population of Frankfurt. About 40 % of our students are from families with a tradition other than German. Many of them are bilingual to a high standard. We regard this not only as a valuable asset for our international cooperation projects but also as a wonderful opportunity to inspire and develop cultural interest, open-mindedness and respect for the achievements of others.
Our new school complex – an eco-friendly, low-energy building (to be completed in 2013) – is perfectly fitted for inspiring lessons exploring thoroughly not only the theoretical depths but also the practical, hands-on side of science. In addition to that, the proximity to Science City Frankfurt Riedberg and the cooperation with the institutions working there will provide our students with thrilling practical experiences of a very high standard.
Regular personal contacts between members of the university and our teachers spark a lot of ideas for projects our students can benefit from from early ages on. So, e.g. a contact to a professor at the GU’s geography department led to an investigation into the eco-friendliness of the women’s football world cup 2010 by our youngest students resulting in an exhibition in the Frankfurt Football Arena.
As international communication is an important part of science today, Gymnasium Riedberg offers a wide range of language teaching to its students. Because of the importance of English as Lingua Franca in science, the bilingual scheme is compulsory for every student. It comprises an enforced English teaching of 5 lessons per week and bilingual maths lessons in year 5 and 6. In year 7 biology and in year 8 geography is taught in English. From year 9 on students can choose either German or English as the language of teaching in several subjects.
From year 7 on, every student has to take on a second foreign language choosing either French or Latin or Spanish. In year 9 and 10 students have the choice between taking on a third foreign language or taking part in a science project which is preferably part of a bigger international project. Those projects will include cooperation with universities as well as companies. In the Oberstufe students will specialize in two subjects of their choice.
Students are encouraged to use the possibility of “work experience weeks” outside Germany or to spend a year abroad in year 9 or 11 (G9).
To foster the communicational, co-operational and intercultural skills of our students and to enable our teachers to exchange ideas and concepts with like-minded teachers all over the world, we are in the process of creating an international school network of high achieving science schools around the globe. Although we are mainly looking for schools in the several twin-cities of Frankfurt, others are more than welcome to join in.
At the moment, our students are working together with students from Norway, France, Spain and Italy on a project supported by the European Union to explore the importance of memory for our personal and social future. In summer 2017 there will be a “fair” in France where the participants will be given the opportunity to present their results to a wider audience.
As we believe that a broad education is important for a successful and fulfilled life, Gymnasium Riedberg offers a lot of extra-curricular courses ranging from English Theatre Workshops to choirs and music classes, from Arts Clubs to courses exploring Frankfurt in other languages.
Sports as well play a key role in developing personality and social skills in our students: with rugby, basketball, lacrosse, swimming, cheerleading and many other courses being available there is a huge variety to choose from.
