International School in Berlin

Phorms Education, Berlin:
Phorms Education provides a private and international school in the green district of Zehlendorf in Berlin, Germany. Campus Berlin Süd is a city campus set in leafy surroundings offering whole-day bilingual education in German and English. Over 500 students attend our Nursery, Primary and Secondary School. We teach children and young people to understand the world in all its cultural and linguistic diversity, local characteristics and global contexts. Our children, teachers and parents all very much enjoy the family atmosphere we have created. We seek to maintain an environment which is cosmopolitan, warm and welcoming.

Nursery School:
We provide age-homogeneous groups for children aged 2 upwards. Each group is looked after by two or three childcare specialists, including at least one person who speaks German and one person whose native language is English. This enables the children to learn both languages within a natural environment.

Fostering the healthy development of the children in our care is at the heart of everything we do. For this reason, we usually spend one day a week visiting the forest, either going to the nearby Grunewald or the wooded Heinrich Laehr Park for a so-called Adventure Day including meals.

Alongside the emphasis we place on nature, we also give a special focus to movement and creativity. We sing a great deal, undertake sporting activities and do artwork. Sport, music and art are generally taught once a week in specially designated rooms. We use the cultural amenities Berlin has to offer to organise a wide range of excursions.

Primary School:
- Curriculum of the Federal State of Berlin
- Cambridge International Primary Programme (CIPP)
- Extensive afternoon programme covering Sports, Music and Art
- Holiday Programme

Our students are taught bilingually according to the immersion concept (German-English). The curriculum at our private school taught is based on the outline curriculum of the federal state of Berlin. We also use the Cambridge International Primary Programme (CIPP) which was developed in 2005 for use in the subjects of English, mathematics and science at primary school level. It provides curricula, tests and didactic methods for the individual levels within the class. The programme displays a good degree of compatibility with local German outline curricula and helps us to ensure quality of teaching. Using the CIPP enables us to provide our students with good foundations for study and work abroad at a later stage.

Secondary School:
- Curriculum of the Federal State of Berlin
- Advanced Placement Programme
- MSA and Abitur
- Extensive afternoon programme covering Sports, Music and Art
- Holiday Programme

The curriculum of our private school is based on the framework curriculum of the State of Berlin. We also use international curricular standards as a basis for teaching methodological competence and for imparting a sense of international alignment. The students study in English and German according to the so-called immersion method.

Bilingual Education (German - English):
Students who have been learning in a bilingual environment for many years perform at an above-average level in foreign languages, in their own mother tongue and in other subjects. Bilingualism promotes the cognitive development of children in such areas as awareness of language, creativity and flexible thinking.

Most of the teaching at our primary school takes place in English. Teachers deliver the lesson content at native speaker level in accordance with the immersion method. This means that teaching staff speak in the foreign language at all times, which pictures, gestures and symbols being used to support student understanding. This enables the children to learn a foreign language in a play-based manner and in a completely natural way within a wide range of contexts.

Our secondary school continues the bilingual concept introduced at nursery school and primary school. Teaching takes place in accordance with the immersion method, which means that all content is delivered exclusively in either German or English. Our secondary school students have no difficulty in following specialist content taught in English and are also able to discuss, write and give presentations in the English language.